Biblical Sarcasm (As If That's A Thing)

When Baal’s prophets on Mount Carmel called on Baal to light a fire under their sacrifice and got no response, “… Elijah began mocking them. ‘You’ll have to shout louder,’ he scoffed, ‘for surely he is a god! Perhaps he is daydreaming, or is relieving himself. Or maybe he is away on a trip, or is asleep and needs to be awakened!’ ” (1 Kings 18:27, NLT). Although some people seem to be uncomfortable with the idea of sarcasm in scripture, Elijah’s mocking and many other passages in scripture must surely be interpreted that way. This paper will seek to define sarcasm, look at examples of sarcasm from scripture (including the possibility that God is shown to be sarcastic), discuss how to recognize sarcasm in scripture and in minority languages, and look at ways that some translators have translated sarcasm in minority languages.