The Bible is full of humor, especially wordplays. Jesus told Simon, "You are Petros, and upon this Petra, I will build my ekklesia." Petros and Petra are both Koine Greek and mean "rock", but Petros means "pebble" while Petra is thought to mean "boulder" or "huge rock." This has, of course, caused humorless theologians to engage in vicious debates as to what Jesus (or the Gospel writer) meant by the distinguishing words, but the lack of humor is not in the Bible, it is in its so-called "Scholars." :-( (BTW, ekklesia is Greek for "called-out ones", i.e., the Church.)

Jesus, speaking in Aramaic, most likely said, "You are Kepha (or Kepa) and upon this Kepha (or Kepa) I will build my Qahal." Kepha (Kepa) means rock; Qahal means assembly and is almost synonymous with synagogue.

Similarly, in the book of Jeremiah, there is an interesting play on the word "Watching Tree" (meaning the Almond Tree) and the word for "watching".

St. Paul the Apostle used lots of sarcastic and ironic humor in his letters.

There is a great academic paper posted on the Web on humor in the Bible. Check out

http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/economic/friedman/bibhumor.htm

It's really good and informative.

Robert (pundoc)