Happiness versus Joy

This morning I heard a prominent radio Bible teacher say that happiness depends on happenings, but that joy depends on Jesus. For many years I have heard variations on that theme, indicating that happiness is just a good feeling we get based on circumstances, but that joy is a deep feeling not based on circumstances (or something like that).

Is this correct? Does the Bible make a difference in the two? Agree or disagree?

Thanks.

 

He was not preaching, but being interviewed -- so no text involved. I didn't really even catch the question; just perked up when I noticed the comment referred to in the OP.

 

Below are some quotes I found on the World Wide Web (not that I agree with the content).

Obviously the words "happiness" and "joy" are two distinct words, but they have overlap in their definitions in the English language. And, of course, such a discussion is dealing with the English language, not the Hebrew or Greek. The Barclay quote above -- "Happiness is not a biblical word at all" -- makes that clear. The word "happiness" is not in the King James, for example, but it is in the New International. (In Matthew 25:23 the NIV has “Come and share your master’s happiness” where the KJV has “enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” Interestingly, chara is the same word translated "joy" in Galatians 5:22.)

Notice that Jodi Hooper says happiness is a feeling "if something good is happening to us at that moment." Peter (or his translators) apparently didn't get that memo, writing, "But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled" and "If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified." (And right before that last one he wrote, "but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy."

In my mind, I think happiness vs. joy is probably an idea that has grown up around the use of "joy" in Galatians 5:22, coupled with a "root fallacy" concerning the words "happy" and "happiness". A quote like "happiness comes from happenings; joy comes from Jesus" sounds really good and people repeat it without a lot of thought. If we can be "happy" to suffer for righteousness' sake, these trite sayings about happiness and joy must miss the biblical mark.

[According to Etymology.com, the meaning "pleasant and contented mental state" was attached to the word "happiness" by the 1590s.]