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Honor and Shame in the New Testament

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  • Honor and Shame in the New Testament

    I haven't quite caught on to the relevance of the Honor and Shame concept being discussed by people around here.

    Is this Honor and Shame concept something that was being rejected by Jesus and Paul?

    For example, in Gal 2:14-21, Paul has gone to great lengths to speak against Peter's improper separation from gentiles -- yet without accusing Peter of doing any actual wrong act. My impression from this is that Paul had carefully (and purposely) avoided shaming Peter -- which would have either affected other people's view of Peter or would have required a response by Peter to defend his honor.

    Was this honor and shame culture therefore something that the Israel people improperly absorbed from the culture by the first century?

  • #2
    Most of what I've known about it is from reading Bruce Malina's classic study on the topic and my understanding is that it's neither good or bad, just that understanding it helps make sense of various aspects of the New Testament. I don't know why we would conclude it had been "improperly" picked up.

    Paul's actions there make good sense whether or not he actually thought honor/shame was a good paradigm. He was unwilling to do anything that right or wrong would bring unnecessary reproach to the gospel. So I don't think that incident has any bearing on how we evaluate it.

    Right or wrong I sometimes get the impression that Christians who are interested in this conclude that it is a superior paradigm that we should adopt in our own society. I think that is an unwarranted leap.
    "I am not angered that the Moral Majority boys campaign against abortion. I am angry when the same men who say, "Save OUR children" bellow "Build more and bigger bombers." That's right! Blast the children in other nations into eternity, or limbless misery as they lay crippled from "OUR" bombers! This does not jell." - Leonard Ravenhill

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    • #3
      What I found in Gal 2:11-21 is that Paul could have told Peter he was a selfish slob for separating from the gentiles. And the point Paul makes indirectly in v15-18 is that a reinstatement of the law (i.e. by adhering to works like that of separation from gentiles) would make Jesus into a promoter of violation of the law -- if the law was still active. But Paul even goes into first-person language to avoid making accusation against Peter (and to avoid saying to Peter "you were wrong"). It is hard to describe the whole scenario here.

      This fits in the context of an honor and shame culture where non-Christians (or ungodly behavior) might Peter's behavior and apply this against Peter or the gospel. So Paul removed any direct statement against Peter's behavior. (Instead, Paul created a parallel event and rejected the possibility of 'works' and law being active after Christ made us new creatures.)

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      • #4
        Originally posted by KingsGambit View Post
        Most of what I've known about it is from reading Bruce Malina's classic study on the topic and my understanding is that it's neither good or bad, just that understanding it helps make sense of various aspects of the New Testament. I don't know why we would conclude it had been "improperly" picked up.
        My concept of 'improper acquiring of this behavior' would be on the possibility that God had sought to keep this influence out of Israel but that Israel eventually started following it -- or had always followed it.

        The basic problem of such behavior is in the judgmental attitude that must be held by those who are doing the shaming. Also, we see the improper seeking of 'honor' of the Jewish leaders who had to figure out the pecking order for seating at meals they shared together.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by mikewhitney View Post
          My concept of 'improper acquiring of this behavior' would be on the possibility that God had sought to keep this influence out of Israel but that Israel eventually started following it -- or had always followed it.

          The basic problem of such behavior is in the judgmental attitude that must be held by those who are doing the shaming. Also, we see the improper seeking of 'honor' of the Jewish leaders who had to figure out the pecking order for seating at meals they shared together.
          It seems like Jesus did not reject the idea altogether, but rather inverted what these leaders considered shameful/not shameful. He seemed to shame them on a number of occasions. I would argue that the Lukan motif of reversal (the first will be last and the last will be first) play into this.
          "I am not angered that the Moral Majority boys campaign against abortion. I am angry when the same men who say, "Save OUR children" bellow "Build more and bigger bombers." That's right! Blast the children in other nations into eternity, or limbless misery as they lay crippled from "OUR" bombers! This does not jell." - Leonard Ravenhill

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