Humanist Comic Elements in Aristophanes and the Old Testament

The use of comic elements in story-telling and literature is not simply the provenance of one particular culture, but is instead as much a natural and recurring technique as having stories about death, sex, and wonder. Lazarus compares and discusses comic elements used for didactic purposes in two separate literary traditions: Old Testament narrative and Aristophanic Comedies. Aristophanic Old Comedy and Old Testament narratives come from two completely different traditions of ancient literature, from very different cultures, but both make use of humour to define what it means to be human within the hierarchy of the universe. Each chapter analyses one example of comic elements in an Old Testament story, together with one Aristophanic play: Numbers 22 (the story of Balaam and his ass) and Peace, the life of Samson in the book of Judges and Birds, Jonah and Frogs, and Tobit and Wealth.