Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Heard, Christopher" <Christopher.Heard AT pepperdine.edu>]

On Sep 17, 2005, at 4:44 AM, Read, James C wrote:

Hebrew1: Edom had red hair and ate some red stew and lived in a place
called red.

Hebrew2: No! Stop! You're killing me! My sides are splitting. Oh you
really are a
        funny guy.


A word play doesn't necessarily have to be "funny," as we understand
"humor," to qualify as a "pun." I encounter English puns all the time
that are merely "clever," and not all that "funny." But they share the
common element of exploiting the multiple meanings of words or
homophones.

And, by the way, some scholars (including, IIRC, no less a personage
than Hermann Gunkel) have indeed argued that ancient Hebrews hearing the
Gen 25 Jacob-Esau story would indeed be roaring with a kind of bitter,
spiteful laughter. Without a time machine, who can say for sure? But
audience laughter is not the measure of a "pun."

"Pun" may not necessarily be the best word to describe what's happening
in a Hebrew text when an author exploits verbal ploysemy or homophones,
but on the other hand it's often the "best fit" for those of us trying
to describe, in English, Hebrew textual phenomena.

Chris

--
R. Christopher Heard
Assistant Professor of Religion
Seaver Fellow in Religion
Pepperdine University
Malibu, California 90263-4352
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