paul
Explanation
The Joke
The comic'''s header asks: "What if programmers''' bibles were actually bibles written by programmers?" It then shows an open Bible with the text: "And lo, Paul did proclaim that Christianity would no longer be backwards compatible with Judaism."
The Humor
The joke maps the concept of software backwards compatibility onto the history of Christianity. In software development, a "programmer'''s bible" is slang for an authoritative reference book on a language or platform (e.g., Kernighan and Ritchie'''s "The C Programming Language"). The comic imagines what the actual Bible would sound like if written in programmer jargon. Paul the Apostle was instrumental in opening Christianity to Gentiles and arguing that Christians did not need to follow Jewish law (such as circumcision and dietary restrictions). In software terms, this is equivalent to a major version update that "breaks backwards compatibility" -- meaning the new system no longer supports the conventions and interfaces of the old one. The joke works because the analogy is surprisingly apt: Paul'''s theological innovations genuinely did make Christianity incompatible with many Jewish practices and traditions.
References
Paul the Apostle (c. 5 -- c. 64/67 AD) was a key figure in early Christianity whose epistles form a significant portion of the New Testament. His teachings, particularly in his Epistle to the Galatians and Epistle to the Romans, argued that faith in Christ superseded adherence to Mosaic Law, effectively separating Christianity from its Jewish roots. In software engineering, "backwards compatibility" refers to a system'''s ability to work with older versions of itself or with legacy input formats.