Can anyone tell us if the Jews use/recognize sarcasm in their Hebrew language today?

The reason I ask is that in the Asian languages that I've become acquainted with so far, sarcasm is not used. In fact, it is difficult for the ESL students to grasp the concept at times. And I have also seen that the traditional oriental cultures are quite similar to the biblical cultures (e.g. respectfulness, gift giving, dowry system, removing shoes in sacred places, modesty, use of incense, etc.).

Blessings,

Green Cochoa.

Got a story for you. True story, but wish I could document it. Good for a study on "situational ethics" I suppose.

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A mother took her two sons to the store shopping one day. While in the store, she chanced to meet an old friend whom she had not seen in many years. Her friend knew something that neither of her boys knew--that one of them had been adopted. It so happened that the woman's birth son was a very stable, happy boy, full of confidence and positive. The adopted son, perhaps on account of some of his pre-adoption environment, had always been moody and insecure, and required more tender loving care. He lacked the sort of confidence that the woman's birth son had. Having always treated them alike, and yet seeing these great differences in their dispositions, the adoptive parents had chosen not to further burden the adoptive child with a knowledge of the fact. Neither of the children were aware of it, having been brought up together from their earliest memories.

Now, in the store, the woman's friend in utter callousness, abruptly asked her "So, which one is the adopted one?"

That one of them should be adopted was news to the boys. The woman was forced, in an inopportune time, to single one of them out. She pointed to her own son.

Many years later, after his mother had passed away, the real son was going through some of things, and found the story recorded in her diary. Only then did he know that he was not adopted. But it had never mattered to him. He had been happy then, and was still happy now...and he saw wisdom in what she had done.

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Thoughts?

Blessings,

Green Cochoa.

One of Satan's arguments against God is that His law is defective. If he is correct, it makes sense that one would need to do things like bear false witness in order to prevent others from harm. However, if the law is not defective, then it doesn't make sense. Did Jesus Christ ever bear false witness to prevent another from suffering harm? I can't even imagine Him doing so. Can you?

Well, I simply see the situation as us too narrowly defining things to fit our limited view. In other words, maybe "lying" is not what we suppose it to be. Perhaps it's the principal motive and attitude that count most, and less a matter of the words themselves. Perhaps there are other factors.

For example, if we were to say that anything less than telling "the whole truth, and nothing but the truth" equals "lying", then I think we have cast the net so wide with our narrow view as to catch Jesus Himself in it. Jesus never revealed the whole truth. If we were to be exposed to the entire truth, none of us could bear it.

Blessings,

Green Cochoa.

Let's take a look again at what Ellen White says.

false witness is defined as

1) false speaking - anything you speak which is not true is a lie.

2) omission of truth by which injury may result to others - the omission of truth is not a lie if it will not result in injury to others, but it is a lie if it will result in injury to others.

So we have to distinguish between false speaking and omission of truth.

So what does one do when the truth itself will cause injury? We don't have the saying in English "truth hurts" for nothing! Truth can kill! If truth is a weapon (e.g. a sword), how should we wield it?



Blessings,

Green Cochoa.

"False speaking in any matter, every attempt or purpose to deceive our neighbor, is here included. An intention to deceive is what constitutes falsehood. By a glance of the eye, a motion of the hand, an expression of the countenance, a falsehood may be told as effectually as by words. All intentional overstatement, every hint or insinuation calculated to convey an erroneous or exaggerated impression, even the statement of facts in such a manner as to mislead, is falsehood. This precept forbids every effort to injure our neighbor's reputation by misrepresentation or evil surmising, by slander or tale bearing. Even the intentional suppression of truth, by which injury may result to others, is a violation of the ninth commandment. {PP 309.3}

In the following passage "the statement of facts" were expressed "in such a manner as to mislead", right? Rather than just going 3 days outside of Egypt, wasn't it Jesus' intention to bring the COI all the way to Canaan?

Exodus
3:18 And they shall hearken to thy voice: and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, The LORD God of the Hebrews hath met with us: and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.

Lying involves intent. If you think something is true, but it's not, that is not a lie, that's just ignorance. Similarly, if you think something is true, but it really isn't, and you present it as being false, this is a lie, even though the thing actually is false. This is because it is the intent which determines where a thing stated is a lie or not.

If truth itself will cause injury, you can omit it. You must decide what will cause more injury - the revelation of truth or its omission.