Student Life’s Michelle Merlin sat down with the McDonnell Douglas Professor of Engineering David Peters from the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Structural Engineering. Peters recently published a book not on engineering, but on the Bible.

Student Life: Your book, “The Many Faces of Biblical Humor,” focuses on humor in the Bible. How did you get into this topic?

David Peters: For probably about the last 30, 40 years I read the Bible through once a year. It’s just a discipline that I’ve developed. Every year I pick a different translation to read through. Four years ago I decided to mark verses I thought were humorous, ironic, sarcastic. And when I got done at the end of the year I had over 1,000 verses marked.

SL: Have you read other religious texts?

DP: I have. I’ve read the Bhagavad Gita and the Quran both. I didn’t find that much humor, but maybe that’s just because I’m not of that culture and I don’t recognize it.

SL: Which text is the most humorous and why?

DP: There’s a translation called the Complete Jewish Bible by David Stern [which] I think is the funniest. There’s a Christian translation called the Living Bible. In the Living Bible, if you see an exclamation point after a sentence it’s probably humorous. It’s a tipoff.

SL: What kind of humor is used and what kind of comic technique?

DP: There’s many different kinds. Sarcasm, of course, is a very important kind of humor. When Elijah is with the prophets of Baal, there’s a contest to see whether its Baal or Yahweh who’s the real God [and] to see which God will bring fire from heaven. So the prophets of Baal put a bull on the altar, and they’re praying to heaven, and Elijah says, ‘Well maybe Baal’s going to the bathroom right now and can’t come.’

There’s also sometimes humor of understatement, [then] there’s just sort of slapstick stuff like Esther. There’s some humor of pathos. They’re pathetically humorous in a way.

SL: Does the humor always help to illustrate a point, or does it ever undermine the traditional interpretation?

DP: I don’t think it ever does. I think the humor is always there for a point—it’s pointed humor. It’s what I call intentional humor. I don’t think it ever undermines the story.

SL: Do you think that these texts are intentionally humorous?

DP: I do. And there are several reasons why I have to think that. One is they’re stories, and stories have humor. They have love, hate, romance, jealousy, so there just had to be humor. Also, God created us, right? So you have to think that if we have a sense of humor, God put it there.

SL: What is the funniest story?

DP: I think the funniest story in itself probably is Esther. I mean that whole story has the most humor in it. Really slapstick funny.

SL: Is all the humor appropriate?

DP: It is. Sometimes it may seem crass. [Ezekiel 23] is crass. I mean it’s very pointed, but it’s God trying to get the people out of their complacency and so it has a point to it, but its pretty rough.

SL: Does our cultural context lend itself to finding the humor?

DP: Now that’s a problem. It’s hard to translate a joke. I’m sure there are things I’m missing—that completely I don’t get—that somebody with an eastern background is just doubling over at.

SL: Do you think most people appreciate the humor?

DP: Most people probably don’t read the Bible very much. And most people I’ve talked to just had this picture of the Bible as this very stilted, out of date, archaic book, so they don’t really think about it. I think the traditional really kind of live in the Bible and see it as a living book, [and] see the characters as real people. I think it’s really people who don’t know the Bible that well who probably don’t think of it that way.

SL: How do you find humor in a place where many people find violence?

DP: Maybe it’s just me. There’s several places like that. Maybe I’m just sick. But what makes something funny a lot of times are two things: one is you’re being set up for some sequel and all of a sudden the opposite happens, and sometimes humor is a release from tension.

SL: What do you hope to achieve with your book?

DP: First I hope people get into the Bible more and really read it and think about those characters as living. And then maybe don’t take themselves as seriously.

SL: How has your book been received within the religious community?

DP: Very well. I thought that I might get a lot of flak. I thought I might get some “Oh, how dare you?” I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how well people have received it.

SL: Were you raised according to a religion?

DP: A Baptist. I’m a Presbyterian right now but both the Baptist and Presbyterians are people who really believe the Bible and both have a lot of respect for the Bible.

SL: As an engineer, how did you get into this?

DP: To me the fact that I can go to the blackboard and make marks with chalk and manipulate them by these mathematical laws and that they mirror the universe has always been this miraculous thing to me. And there’s a proverb that says it’s the glory of God to conceal something and the glory of man to uncover it. I see myself as just uncovering God’s creation. I’ve always had a really close connection with the engineering side.

SL: What other kinds of books do you read?

DP: I always read the Bible. I always have something fiction and something nonfiction. I try to read a lot of different things. Of course I always have to read my tech stuff to stay up with my research. But that’s my job and not for fun.

SL: Were you that kid in Sunday school who sat in the corner and laughed to himself?

DP: You know I did. The Baptist tradition, the preaching, is almost theatrical, so I came from a background where stories were told with a lot of luster. Sometimes you think ‘I wonder if I’m sick thinking that’s funny,’ but it is.