First Century Culture - Part 1

Another series of articles that I wrote for NT magazine....

First Century Culture (Part 1) - Honour and Shame

21st century Western culture encourages each to shamelessly pursue their '15 minutes of fame'. 'Shame' and 'honour' were never far from the mind of the ancient Jew, Greek or Roman, nor far below the surface of our Bible – but in different senses.

An individual's shame reflected badly on the family and the whole community – so there could be violent repercussions, even as far as death. (We still see this in so-called 'honour killings' today in some societies). Because of the communal impact, anything done in secret was automatically assumed to involve wrong-doing. (This could explain Jesus' trial defence, in John 18:2, that he did nothing in secret).

God was the ultimate source of honour and it was thought to be available in limited quantities! Anyone who acquired honour therefore had to have taken it from someone else – compare John the Baptist's assertion that ‘"He (Jesus) must become greater; I must become less."’ (John 3:30).

Honour had to be ascribed by others; assuming it for oneself would usually be challenged publicly. (Could this explain why the Lord made few claims about his true status, but never refused others' genuine worship?)

Themes of honour and shame can be seen throughout Jesus' life. He completed numerous 'challenge/riposte' cycles with the Pharisees. The challenges were questions designed to trip Jesus up and cause him to lose face (e.g. ‘"What is the greatest commandment?"’). But Jesus' skilful answers meant that eventually ‘no-one dared to ask him any more questions’ (Luke 20:40) – clearly the risk to their honour was too great!

Jesus was prepared to sacrifice worldly honour when eating with tax collectors and sinners (Mat. 9:11), breaking the elders' traditions (Mat. 15:1-2), and associating with Samaritans (John 4). Even so, Jesus was accumulating so much honour that the leaders of the day out of envy handed Him over to Pilate to be killed (Mark 15:10).

Jesus' teaching often used shame/honour concepts to grab attention. The prodigal son had brought shame on his family by his actions, and the hearers would instinctively side with the 'other son' – yet Jesus revealed the father's shocking response to be right. Jesus' command to love our enemies, instead of regaining lost honour by taking an eye for an eye, was also a very radical message.

The New Testament writers seem agreed that the key sub-text of the cross was shame, not pain – unlike the provocative film 'The Passion of the Christ'. So the focus was on spitting at, and striking of, the head (usually most honoured body part), insults, and ridicule by giving him the 'trappings' of a king – and most of all, the shame of the apparent forsaking of the Son by the Father.

And yet, amazingly, the Lord ‘for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame’ (Heb. 12:2). Paradoxically shame has been turned to honour in God's plan. Jesus even chided the two on the Emmaus road, ‘"Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter His glory?"’ (Luke 24:26).

Believers today will likely lose this world's honour if they serve the Lord faithfully. Yet God has promised us something more valuable, saying, ‘"Those who honour me I will honour"’ (1 Sam. 2:30) and ‘anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame’ (Rom. 10:11).