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→Humor in the Bible: added subsection on Paronomasia copied and pasted from that article
*In the [[Acts of the Apostles]] is a serious incident which has some wonderfully slapstick comedic overtones (19:11-16). God had been doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, and even cloths that he had touched were applied to the sick and to possessed persons and they were completely cured. So some traveling Jewish [[Exorcism|exorcists]] decided to use the Name of Jesus as a ''word of power'' over people who were possessed, by saying, "I ''adjure'' you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches".<ref>[http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/adjure "adjure"] (oxforddictionaries.com). See [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01142c.htm Catholic Encyclopedia: adjuration].<br/>[http://www.stubbornthings.org/authority-justice-law/ Authority, Justice, Law] (stubbornthings.org) ''the authority required to legitimately adjure''.</ref> When the seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, did this, the evil spirit said, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know: ''but who are you?''", and he leaped on them and beat them so badly they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.
*In the [[Acts of the Apostles]] is a serious incident which has some wonderfully slapstick comedic overtones (19:11-16). God had been doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, and even cloths that he had touched were applied to the sick and to possessed persons and they were completely cured. So some traveling Jewish [[Exorcism|exorcists]] decided to use the Name of Jesus as a ''word of power'' over people who were possessed, by saying, "I ''adjure'' you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches".<ref>[http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/adjure "adjure"] (oxforddictionaries.com). See [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01142c.htm Catholic Encyclopedia: adjuration].<br/>[http://www.stubbornthings.org/authority-justice-law/ Authority, Justice, Law] (stubbornthings.org) ''the authority required to legitimately adjure''.</ref> When the seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, did this, the evil spirit said, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know: ''but who are you?''", and he leaped on them and beat them so badly they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.
==Paronomasia in the Bible==
The [[Bible]] frequently uses [[paronomasia]] (wordplay, puns); for example:
:"With the jawbone of an ass (''hamor''), heaps upon heaps (''hamor hamortayim''), with the jawbone of an ass have I smitten a thousand men" (Judges 15:16). In Hebrew, the word for both "ass" and "heap" is ''hamor''. (See also Judges 14:12-14).
:"And he had thirty sons that rode on thirty ass colts (''ayarim''), and they had thirty cities (''ayarim''), which are called Havvoth-jair unto this day, which are in the land of Gilead" (Judges 10:4). The Hebrew word ''ayarim'' can mean both "ass colts" and "cities." Another more "dynamic translation" might render in English the play on words in this verse as: "He had thirty sons who rode thirty burros who had thirty boroughs."
:"And they were both naked (''arummim''), the man and his wife, and were not ashamed" (Genesis 2:25). The next verse says, "Now the serpent was more cunning (''arum'') than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made (Genesis 3:1). In one verse the term ''arum'' is used to mean "naked" and in the next verse the same basic root denotes "cunning" or "subtle." In both places the meaning includes "smooth". The serpent was "smooth-bodied" and "smooth-tongued".
:"the king sent an Athenian senator to compel the Jews to forsake the laws of their fathers and cease to live by the laws of God, and also to pollute the temple in Jerusalem and call it the temple of Olympian Zeus, and to call the one in Gerizim the temple of Zeus the Friend of Strangers, as did the people who dwell in that place" (2 Maccabees 6:1-2). The Jews equated Olympian Zeus with the Syrian Baal Shamen (“the lord of the heavens”), a term which the Jews mockingly rendered as ''shiqqus shomem'', “desolating abomination” (Daniel 9:27; 11:31; 12:11; 1 Maccabees 1:54; Matthew 24:15; Mark 13:14).
There are many other examples in the OT:
:Genesis 9:27; 25:26; 48:22
:Exodus 2:10
:Ruth 1:20
:Ecclesiastes 7:1 a '''שֵׁם''', '''שֶׁמֶן'''
:Isaiah 63:1
:Micah 1:10-15
In the New Testament, see for example:
:Philemon 1:11, Ὀνήσιμον—ἄχρηστον—εὔχρηστον ''Onesimon—achreston—euchreston''. Onesimus in Greek literally means "profitable". In the Greek New Testament, "useless" is ἄχρηστον achrēston, and "useful" is εὔχρηστον euchrēston. The prefix "a-" is a negative, meaning "not-". The prefix "eu-" is a positive, meaning "good-". The phrase in the Greek text of Philemon verse 11 is: τόν ποτέ σοι '''ἄχρηστον''' , νυνὶ δὲ καὶ σοὶ καὶ ἐμοὶ '''εὔχρηστον'''
:Matthew 16:18 σὐ εἶ '''Πέτρος''' (a huge rock), καὶ ἐπὶ ταύτῃ τῇ '''πέτρᾳ''' (huge boulder, rock) οἰκοδομήσω μου τὴν ἐκκλησίαν.<ref>See Strong's numbers [http://biblehub.com/greek/4073.htm ''4073''] and [http://biblehub.com/greek/4074.htm''4074'']. Curiously, Strong's definition of "small rock, pebble", is inaccurate: "''properly, a stone (pebble), such as a small rock found along a pathway''". Protestant Greek scholars like D.A. Carson and Joseph Thayer admit there is no distinction in meaning between petros and petra in the Koine Greek of the New Testament.
:*Joseph H. Thayer, '''Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament''' (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1996), 507
:*D.A. Carson, “'''Matthew''',” in Frank E. Gaebelein, ed., '''The Expositor’s Bible Commentary''' (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984), vol. 8, 368.
According to Greek linguists, ''petra'' means a ‘rock’, usually a ‘large rock’ which is the same exact Greek meaning of ''petros'' — large rock. It does not mean ‘pebble’ or ‘small stone’. The Greek word for ‘pebble’ or ‘small stone’ is ''lithos'', not ''petros''.
<br>
If, as seems probable, our Lord spoke in Aramaic, the word used would be ''Kepha'' (בֵּיפָא, compare Hebrew בֵּפִים in Jeremiah 4:29, Job 30:6 = ‘rocks’; see Strong's number [http://biblehub.com/greek/2786.htm ''2786'']). Aramaic makes no grammatical difference in masculine and feminine forms for "rock" as does Greek. "''You are Kepha, and on this kepha I will build my church''". This is the reading in the ancient Syriac ''Peshitta'' translation of the New Testament.
<br>
The Greek text of the paronomasia in Matthew 16:18 makes the reference to St. Peter grammatically certain, although some doubt whether Christ meant that St. Peter, as the leader of the Apostolic band, is the human foundation of the new Church (see Ephesians 2:20; Revelation 21:14), or whether he meant that it is built on the foundation of the confession of Peter, Σὺ εἷ ὁ Χριστὸς ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ζῶντος. The first view "''on Peter''" is the more reasonable from the literal standpoint of Greek grammatical structure, and would probably have been almost universally accepted had it not been for the insistently persistent [[Triumphalism|triumphalist]] assertion of some Roman Catholic commentators, and the invincibly prejudiced antipathy of some [[Protestantism|Protestant]] [[apologetics|apologists]] against Catholicism which prompts them to forcibly misrepresent the meaning of ''petros'' against its thoroughly attested Greek meaning. [[Orthodox Church|Orthodoxy]] also stoutly rejects the Catholic biblical [[exegesis]] of Matthew 16:18 as establishing Petrine Primacy.
<br>
See discussion in [http://patrickmadrid.com/bam-bam-the-“pebbles”-argument-goes-down-2/ Bam! Bam! The "Pebbles" Argument Goes Down - Patrick Madrid (patrickmadrid.com)]</ref>
There are also possible examples of paronomasia in Matthew 2:23; Matthew 3:9.
In Matthew 2:23 the words Ναζωραῖος κληθήσεται ''Nazoraios klethesetai'' are not found in Hebrew or Aramaic in any of the books of the Old Testament prophets (''Nazoraios''= an inhabitant of Nazareth). They appear to many interpreters to be an allusion to Isaiah 11:1 where Messiah is called '''נֵצֶר''' (''netzer'' = a branch), and possibly also to the word '''נָצַר''' (''netzer'' = to preserve); see Isaiah 49:6.
In Matthew 3:9 (see Luke 3:8) John the Baptist says δύναται ὁ θεὸς ἐκ τῶν λίθων τούτων ἐγεῖραι τέκνα τῷ Ἀβραάμ ''dynatai o Theos ek ton lithos touton egeirai tekna to Abraham''. The Hebrew words for the Greek λίθοι ''lithoi'' ("stones") and τέκνα ''tekna'' ("children") are similar in sound: "God can from these stones (אֲבָנִים ’ăbânîm) raise up children (בָּנִים bânîm) to Abraham."
In the paronomasia of John 2:19-21 Jesus refers to destruction of the temple and to raising it up again:{{cquote|Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body.}}Scholars have pointed out the multiple examples of paronomasia in the profound double meanings used in John's Gospel.
==Bible Translations==
==Bible Translations==