Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Bible Joke

Well I've been a slacker on the blog; I'll get back in gear soon.

During my little breaks at work, I've been trying to solve this puzzle. Recently, I was forwarded one of those Internet jokes:


A priest offered a Nun a lift.

She got in and crossed her legs, forcing her gown to reveal a leg.

The priest nearly had an accident.

After controlling the car, he stealthily slid his hand up her leg.

The nun said, 'Father, remember Psalm 129?'

The priest removed his hand. But, changing gears, he let his hand slide up her leg again. The nun once again said, 'Father, remember Psalm 129?'

The priest apologized 'Sorry sister but the flesh is weak.'

Arriving at the convent, the nun sighed heavily and went on her way.

On his arrival at the church, the priest rushed to look up Psalm 129. It said, 'Go forth and seek, further up, you will find glory.'

Moral of the story:

If you are not well informed in your job, you might miss a great opportunity.


Naturally, being an inquisitive sort of person, I immediately went to look up Psalm 129, to read it for myself.

What I found was interesting - the lack of that passage! I cannot find any Bible anywhere, that has a passage even remotely similar to the above little quote. In the course of my searching I have found two different numbering systems for the Psalms, the Septuagint and the Masoretic - Wikipedia mentions these as Greek and Hebrew numbering - so allowing for those differences (basically reading Psalm 128, 129, 130 for good measure) I come up with zilch.

I've tried several different Bibles, I know translations can vary quite a bit. But still, between the American Standard, New International Version, King James, Skeptics Annotated Bible, in addition to the above New Advent Catholic Bible, there is nothing.

Googling for the quote in the joke, "Go forth and seek, further up, you will find glory" only leads to about a million hits for various forms of this joke, all of which apparently are referencing a non-existent quote. Another possibility is the joke has it wrong, it isn't Psalm 129 and is instead one of the other 150 of them.

If anybody actually knows what Psalm that is, leave a comment. I'm going to peck away at this and eventually read through the Psalms and either find the right one, or conclude the joke is funny, but bogus.

EDIT: A commenter Reggie points out that Matthew 7:7 works as the punch line in this joke:

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you

Another commenter Steve points out that part of Luke 14:10 works, perhaps not as well, but reasonably:

that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher

Thank you very much!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Try Luke 14:10

Ma. Gemma B. Vergara said...

tama. I also tried 125 to 129 pero wala

spyder107-davebromoils said...

How about Proverbs 3:27 which I used on a banner on a teachers NUT march in 1960s.

I must have misquoted because I changed the 'do it.' to 'grant it.'!

King James Bible

“Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it.”
Spyder107

spyder107-davebromoils said...

Is this an improvement?
A priest was driving along and saw a nun on the side of the road he stopped and offered her a lift which she accepted. She got in and crossed her legs, forcing the her habit to open and reveal a shapely leg. The priest glances down and nearly has an accident, and after changing gear lets his hand slip onto her knee and slide up her leg.

She very much startled and immediately says "Father remember Matthew 7:7."

The priest apologizes and removes his hand. But from time to time he is unable to remove his eyes from her leg.
Further on when he changes gear he lets his hand slide up her leg again.

The Nun again says "Please Father, remember Proverbs 3:27"

Again the priest apologizes profusely and says "So sorry sister but you know the flesh is weak."

Climbing a hill the priest first changes down a gear and then up. Each time he gets hold of the nun’s knee and slides his hand up higher but again the nun, shaking with emotion almost yells "Father, please, please, remember Matthew 7:7 and Proverbs 3:27”.

Again the priest with red faced embarrassment grovels his apologies.

Arriving at the convent the nun gets out give the priest a contemptuous look, grabs her luggage and leaves.

The priest goes on his way. Once he arrives at his church he rushes to the bible and looks up Matthew 7:7 it said:
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you”.
He looks up Proverbs 3:27 which says “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it.”
(King James Bible)

Moral: Know your subject!