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Laughing to the Grave and Back Again: The Humor of Acts 20.7-12

The humorous story of Eutychus’ death and subsequent revival in Acts 20.7-12 is the source of several disagreements among recent interpreters. While some reject the humorous element and read this passage as a serious moral lesson, others recognize it but down-play its significance by focusing on the more serious framework of worship. Using recent work on the philosophy of humor, this article argues for interpreting Acts 20.7-12 as thoroughly humorous through an appeal to ancient parallels of nomastic wordplay, sleep-inducing speech, and examples of tragic deaths through falling. These elements fulfill the criteria of both shared knowledge and shared feeling between author and the original reader(s) necessary for detecting humor. It concludes by demonstrating how the humorous interpretation of Acts 20.7-12 can be integrated into the wider liturgical setting.