Maybe I missed the reference in this ongoing thread, but there were
early "gnostic" claims that the heavenly Christ laughed when he looked
on the crucifixion of the supposed Jesus (sometimes identified as the
cross-bearing Simon of Cyrene) -- see the popularistic book on the Nag
Hammadi discoveries by John Dart, entitled The Laughing Savior, for
example (Harper, about 1976).
>From this observation, a question: Is there any evidence that such
imagery was known to later "ecclesiastical" authors and might have
influenced their attitudes to the question of laughter and Jesus/Christ?
Bob Kraft, UPenn
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