The Calvin 500 Blog

Calvin remarks in his commentary on Joshua 2 that Jericho, unlike Rome did not have a founder (Romulus) “who could make the overleaping a pretext for slaying his brother.” Henry Beveridge commented on this, viewing it as an instance of “quiet and almost sly humor which occasionally betrays itself in Calvin’s other writings.” Moreover, Beveridge noted that had Calvin not hidden such humor under a public gravitas, “he might easily have added wit to the other weapons with which he fought the battles of faith. In private life, when greater freedom was allowable, it appears, according to Beza’s statement, to have not infrequently contributed to the charm of his conversation.”