Wisdom, Qohelet, and the Art of Snark

There are biblical texts in which it seems possible to detect the use of humour, and these include the books traditionally characterised as »wisdom literature.« Attitudes and debates around the question, however, have sometimes unhelpfully associated such humour with a lack of seriousness, and have confused tone with purpose: just as a solemn tone can be used for comic effect, so comedy can express or address the tragic. Going beyond the use of such devices in aphorisms or insults, the characterisation of figures like Jonah, Tobit and Job may incorporate aspects of the comic or ridiculous, shaping the way we react to them without implying that any is simply a figure of fun. Something similar seems to be at work in the presentation of Qohelet, who is not set up to be mocked for his idiosyncratic attitudes and ideas, but who is also surely not offered as a model for emulation. We should not presume that the original writers and audiences shared all our assumptions and tastes, but if we impute to them the sort of reverence with which the texts were later received as scripture, or at least an uncommonly serious and literal turn of mind, then we risk wholly missing the points that some of our literature is trying to make.