As I recently read the gospels in the Scholars Version of the Bible [The Five Gospels by the Jesus Seminar] I was struck by the humor of Jesus! In fact as I found myself rolling on the floor at the verses in Matthew 7:3 through 7:5, I asked my self why I had never found these funny before. I had never noticed anyone laughing the scores of times I have heard them read in church. Why now? So I got out some other translations and compared them. Here are those same verses from Matthew from three Bible versions:

• [Scholars Version] Why do you notice the sliver in your friend’s eye, but overlook the timber in your own? How can you say to your friend, "Let me get the sliver out of your eye, when there is that timber in your own? You phony, first take the timber out of your own eye and then you’ll see well enough to remove the sliver from your friends eye.
  
  
• [King James Version] And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thy say to thy brother, "Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?" Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
  
  
• [New English Bible] Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye, with never a thought for the great plank in your own? Or how can you say to your brother, "let me take the speck out of your eye", when all the time there is that plank in your own? You hypocrite! First take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s.
  
  

My problem with the KJV is obvious - I just don't hear people speak that way. It sounds very much like someone transliterated from Greek to English. It is couched in traditional religious language. My mind was looking for moral instruction. Biblical words like hypocrite and brother are religious buzz words bringing specific associations. Thou and thine elevate to the spiritual. One hardly expects to find 'beholdist' in jocular material.

The problems with the New English translstion are more subtle. Hyprocrite and brother are still religious buzz words. Speck of sawdust and great plank are somewhat foreign.

The Scholars version tells it in the style that one expects to hear a joke in. It was their deliberate intention to translate in such a fashion that the reader would think that the author was telling a story to one using the authors unique style of narrative. I think the authors recognized the inherent humor and took this in to consideration in their translation. Subtleties of language and timing are necessary to impart humor.

Here are some other examples; all are taken from Matthews gospel:

• Matthew [7:9-10] Who among you would hand a son a stone when its bread he’s asking for? Again, who would hand him a snake when it’s fish he’s asking for?
  
  
• Matthew [6:24] No one can be a slave to two masters. No doubt that slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to one and disdain the other. You can’t be enslaved to both God and a bank account.
  
  
• Matthew [19:23-24] I swear to you, it is very difficult for the rich to enter Heaven’s domain. And again I tell you, it’s easier for a Camel to squeeze through a needle’s eye than for a wealthy person to get into God’s domain.

I think most people would not find humor in that last quote. Most people assume that the message is that rich people are likely to go to hell. While the quotes given above are regarded by the Fellows of the Jesus seminar to be close to the actual words spoken by Jesus, they suggest that the evangelist Matthew added his own words following the above verses to soften a harsh text. He attributed these words to the disciples: The disciples asked "Well then, who can be saved?" He attributed these words to Jesus: For mortal’s this is impossible; for God everything’s possible.

In stripping away layers of Christian theology that have been mixed into the dialogues of Jesus in the scriptures, they suggest the idea that Jesus was not of an apocalyptic mind set. Jesus spoke most characteristically of God's rule as close or already present but unobserved. In this sense Jesus' remarks would be seen not as a condemnation but rather the inability of the rich to get with it. This type of exaggeration is characteristic of Jesus.

Some of the sayings of Jesus while not explicitly funny are nearly so. Here are a few. There are many other examples. In fact when you have all the authentic words of Jesus gathered together his personality shines through.

• Matthew [5:46] Tell me, if you love those who love you, why should you be commended for that? Even the toll collectors do as much, don’t they?
  
  
• Matthew [12:48-49] My mother and my brothers - who ever are they?….Here are my mother and my brothers. For whosever does the will of my Father in Heaven, that’s my brother and sister and mother.
  
  
• Matthew [7:16] Since when do people pick grapes from thorns or figs from thistles?
  
  
• Matthew [5:39] ...when someone slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other as well. When someone wants to sue you for your shirt, let that person have your coat along with it.

Here Jesus is not talking literally. He is suggesting how to react differently to acts of aggression.