Punishment by punny puns

A pun is a play on words or double meaning for a word or phrase. Some people love puns. Some people hate puns. There are many puns, or play on words, used in Hebrew (and Greek) in the Bible. Most puns are by sound, some by meaning, etc.

Here are links to some puns related to Bible themes, with more being added over time.

Romans 16 A belly-ache pun on useful Christ-like words
Pun: Antiochus Epiphanies
2021-11-22: A pause for rest (as a play on words by Paul on his name)

Here is a pun I created in the late 1980's. It has 3 words that can each have 2 meanings.

Would you take offense to a roaming shepherd?
Would you take offense to a Roman shepherd?
Would you take a fence to a roaming shepherd?
Would you take a fence to a Roman shepherd?
Would a Jew take offense to a roaming shepherd?
Would a Jew take offense to a Roman shepherd?
Would a Jew take a fence to a roaming shepherd?
Would a Jew take a fence to a Roman shepherd?

As with puns of this type, one needs to slide the pronunciation to between the two choices at each point to achieve a better effect.

Here are the 3 choices.

1. "you" or "a Jew"

2. "offense" or "a fence"

3. "roaming" or "Roman"

000 001 010 011 100 101 110 111

All 2³ = 8 ways make some sense. In binary, we can see all 8 ways to have 3 choices with each choice being a 0 (zero) or a 1 (one).

One might add more to this pun with "defense" and "the fence" or with "rushing" and "Russian", etc.

In the Olivet discourse, Jesus talks about the end times. That is, he talks about "All of it", a pun with Olivet (in "English").

The German word "Bischof" ≈ "Bishop".

The German word "Schaf" ≈ "sheep".
The German word "Biss" ≈ "bite, sting".

Church members (even Bishops) are often characterized as sheep. So a German pun was to call the "Bischof" (not to his face) a "Biss Schaf" (sheep that bites or someone that bites the sheep)

A "biting" sheep is different than a "bleating" sheep.

Acts 17:18 Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? … [kjv]

τινες δε και των επικουρειων και στωικων φιλοσοφων συνεβαλλον αυτω και τινες ελεγον τι αν θελοι ο σπερμολογος ουτος λεγειν οι δε ξενων δαιμονιων δοκει καταγγελευς ειναι οτι τον ιησουν και την αναστασιν ευηγγελιζετο [gnt]

… seminiverbius … [v]

… sowere of wordis … [wy]

Some puns are that of meaning rather than a play on words. These are sometimes described by the saying "do as I say and not as I do". In Acts 17 at Mars Hill, Paul is ridiculed as doing what the people saying it about him are doing.

Wycliffe has a direct translation close to the original Greek as in "sower of words". The later translations as "babbler" appear to be influenced by the Latin word "seminiverbius" ≈ "babbler".