Ep. 13 - The World of the New Testament
Episode Transcript
Ep. 13 - The World of the New Testament
[00:00:00] JC Schroeder: In today's episode, we're going to talk about the world of the New Testament, what were its values and social structures, and how these concepts shaped the message of the New Testament. I'm JC Schroeder, and welcome to Bite Size Seminary.
[00:00:28] Introduction
[00:00:28] JC Schroeder: Wanted: older couple, very wealthy, and willing to adopt a young man in his early thirties, who's good at doing the dishes. Don't worry, mom. This silly intro, isn't actually a thing ...any more. In ancient Greco-Roman society, they had different social values and mechanisms for life, then how we live today. These values, shape the message in the New Testament. So today we're going to look at three different cultural values that were prevalent [00:01:00] in Greco-Roman culture along with some new Testament, examples to help us understand Scripture better. And yes, part of that has to do with adoption. Thus, my silly intro. Unless you really are a wealthy couple that wants to adopt me. You can contact me on my website. Anyways. These three cultural values that we're going to look at are honor and shame, family and kin, and patron-client relationships.
[00:01:31] Honor and Shame
[00:01:31] JC Schroeder: Honor and shame has everything to do with a society's value system, how one was viewed or valued within a community. In the ancient world, one's identity, one's view of themself, was directly tied to the community. There was individual components, but we in the West are highly individualistic. In the ancient world, it was [00:02:00] very communal. And this corresponds to this honor shame culture, which determined one's value by the community. And that value was determined on how a person adhered or did not adhere to the values that the community held. Honor with something to be tremendously valued. The most important thing that you would seek in life was honor. And shame was something that you do everything in your power to avoid.
[00:02:32] We too, have some elements of honor and shame in our own Western society. But in the Greco-Roman world that the New Testament lives in, this honor shame component is much more elevated and prevalent in their society and in their thought world. It becomes a guiding principle of life within a community. David DaSilva defines honor as "a dynamic and [00:03:00] relational concept." Where the individual views themselves as valuable and that the larger group or community views them as valuable based on adherence to shared values. Shame on the other hand is again from deSilva "being seen as less than valuable, because one has behaved in ways that run contrary to the values of the group." It is the group's mechanism to control action and to control actions within a society.
[00:03:32] Now shame can also have a positive element to deter against shameful actions. We think of a shame as purely an emotional sort of response. But really in an honor shame society, it was a valuation of a person's actions. Take for instance, a person who is courageous and stays and fights when the enemy is invading their city or their village. They are then honored [00:04:00] as valuable to that larger community. Whereas the one who runs away, they are shamed for their cowardice. Now what's important here is that in an honor and shame culture, honor is everything and it can, and must be cultivated. It becomes the supreme social currency for that community.
[00:04:23] But as the New Testament and as Jesus enters into this world, what Jesus does, and what the New Testament does, at many important points is that it takes on that honor shame language to describe how Christians should live. But it also redefines what is honorable and what is shameful. It seeks to redefine those actions by the very character of God and not by the dominant culture. So we see this at several points where Jesus presses against what is [00:05:00] considered honorable by the culture. And what he, and what the Father considers to be honorable for his people.
[00:05:09] So for instance, in Mark 9, Jesus finds his disciples being a bunch of knuckleheads yet again. After a long day of traveling, Jesus asked his disciples. "Um, what were you discussing on the way?" And everyone is just dead silent. Because this is what the text says in Mark 9:34. "For on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest." Now, in Mark's Gospel Jesus had just finished describing the way that he was going to suffer, to die, and be raised from the dead. And now the very next thing that Mark presents is the disciples going, "Who is going to be the greatest?" When Jesus hears this, he doesn't just go, [00:06:00] "oh, you bunch of dummies." That's probably what I would have done. What Jesus does is that he sits down. This is what the text says. "And he sat down and called the twelve and he said to them, if anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all." So here you see him beginning to dismantle that dominant view of what is honorable and what is shameful of the primacy in the thought world of the disciples and of the Greco-Roman culture that I must be first that I must gain honor. I must obtain the social currency. Jesus says, Nope. That is not how my disciples are going to be wired to run their lives as only seeking prizes as only seeking honor. He flips the script. " If anyone would be first. He must be last of all and servant of all."
[00:06:55] We see later a similar scene in Mark 10, [00:07:00] after Jesus has again described what is about to happen to him with his suffering, his death and his resurrection. James and John come to Jesus and they say, "Hey, Jesus, we want the best seats in the house. When you enter your kingdom, we want to sit on your right hand and on your left hand in glory." They think they're all that. They think that they are worthy of this place of honor. So their view of themselves is very high. Their social estimation is very high. And their goal is to obtain this honorable position. Now what Jesus does is he reorients their entire perspective based upon himself, not on what the culture defines is what is honorable, but on the son of God who entered into human history and what he came to do. He talks about this in chapter 10, verse 42. [00:08:00] "Jesus called his disciples to them and said to them, 'You know, that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them. And their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you.'" And what he's describing here is not that human government is bad. He says that the tendency of those within power is to grasp after more power, to abuse their power. But he says that is not how my disciples are going to function, because that is not how Jesus functions. He himself is the servant. He says this in a couple of verses down. "For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Our God came to this earth to suffer and to [00:09:00] die for our sins. The one who is deserving of all praise, of all honor receives all shame for our salvation. And so he desires, he commands his people, his disciples, you and me, to follow him, to not seek after honor to not seek after power, to not seek after prizes, but to serve others, as he served us. So what I love about this picture of our Savior, is that he takes that dominant picture of what is considered honorable and shameful and he flips it on its head. He doesn't get rid of the categories. He redefines what those categories are.
[00:09:53] Family and Kin
[00:09:53] JC Schroeder: The second cultural value that was quite prevalent in Greco-Roman society and in other ancient societies as well, [00:10:00] including Jewish society was family and kin. One's family defined who a person was. This is why genealogies are so important in ancient literature and in biblical literature as well, because it established a person's identity and even their claim to honor, as we just mentioned with honor and shame.
[00:10:23] Now in Western culture, we place less priority on our family and our community and more on our own individual achievements. Think of that line from the musical Hamilton, when one of the Schuyler sisters ask Hamilton "Where's your family from?" and Hamilton responds, "It's unimportant." That's individualism. The world of the New Testament would not have understood that type of an answer.
[00:10:49] So for us, when we read these genealogical lists in the Bible and in something like Matthew's genealogy of Jesus, in the beginning of his Gospel. [00:11:00] We might subtly and maybe irreverently grown at reading a long list of names. And so-and-so begot so-and-so. And he died. And so-and-so begot so-and-so and he died. Oh, I just need a word from the Lord today. That doesn't resonate with us. But it was important to the ancient listeners and readers of the New Testament. And when we look at Matthew's genealogy specifically, there. Matthew is specifically trying to tie Jesus to David, that he is that rightful, heir and rightful king of Israel.
[00:11:39] Now one other example about how a family functions, that we have to talk about is adoption. And this goes back to the opening illustration, which was kind of silly. Okay. A lot of silly. In our society, adoption only occurs of children. Someone who doesn't have someone to take care of them. In the ancient [00:12:00] world, adoption had nothing to do with a individual adopting a child in need. It had everything to do about providing an heir for an older individual. Michelle Morris in her article on adoption in the Lexan Bible Dictionary talks about how it was preferable in looking for an heir, if you were an older person looking for an heir for your household, you wanted someone who had proven managerial skills. Thus, a young child was not that type of person. You would want somebody, a male who was post puberty and, or even into adulthood who had proved themselves. That was the type of person you wanted to adopt as your heir or as your son.
[00:12:51] You see that this happens with Julius Caesar. After his death, they read his will and he proclaims that his heir [00:13:00] is not his actual son but is his nephew. And he claims him as his son. And so Octavian who later becomes Caesar Augustus becomes the actual heir and the actual son of Julius Caesar by way of adoption. That doesn't work in our modern society. But that was a very prevalent thing, especially in the upper elites in the Greco-Roman society.
[00:13:28] Now what's so cool about this, is that the way that the Lord describes our salvation, his actions towards us is that he uses these concepts of adoption for our own salvation. So Paul writes in Romans chapter eight in verse 14, "for all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you to not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, [00:14:00] by whom we cry abba Father." So here, Paul is describing how the Lord has chosen us, as his heirs, as his sons, as his adopted children. Not because we have proven ourselves to God, this is what makes adoption so absurd, but that we have failed the Lord. And yet he still desires for us to be in his family.
[00:14:28] Patron-Client Relationships
[00:14:28] JC Schroeder: Now the third and final cultural value that we'll talk about is patron-client relationships. This was part of the economic system of the Greco-Roman world. Where you would have a patron, someone who was upper-class or wealthy, and they would have a variety of different clients that would be in service to the patron. The patron then would be in a relationship with this client. They would be necessitated to provide them goods. And the client would [00:15:00] then be responsible to provide honor back to the patron. So this goes back to what we were talking about with honor and shame in the culture.
[00:15:08] This patron client relationship was about giving and return of giving, reciprocity. Patron gives goods. Client gives honor. And the language that is used in Greco-Roman world in Greek for this system and for this exchange of giving and of receiving was of grace and faith, charis and pistis. It's the same word that we find in the New Testament for God's actions towards us, and our response to the Lord. So the New Testament envisions us in this relationship. In this somewhat patron client relationship with the Lord. He bestows on us and gives to us, thus grace. And [00:16:00] how do we respond to him? With faith and with faithfulness to him.
[00:16:05] Now God's patronage to the world, to us is quite different than what was expected. He gave and he keeps giving, even to the undeserving and the ungrateful. This would have like blown the minds of the Greco-Roman world, because you don't just keep giving to someone who is ungrateful or undeserving. You cut them off and you didn't have them as a client anymore. But God chases after us. He gives and gives to you and to me. Even when we are unfaithful, God gives to us. He bestows grace to us. And the response that we should have in being in this relationship is not to just go "Thanks. I'll move on now with my life." But it should be one of trust in him for our salvation. [00:17:00] But then also a continual commitment to him and living obedience and faithfulness to who he is. Not for our salvation, but in appreciation for who the Lord is and what he has done for us. And how we are in this intimate relationship with him now. How can we do anything, but show faithfulness to him.
[00:17:25] Conclusion
[00:17:25] JC Schroeder: Now I've looked at these three cultural values of honor shame, family and kin and patron and client relationships. And hopefully these help illuminate the thought world, the social structures of Greco-Roman society. But more importantly, how God uses these images, reframes the discussion, and infuses that culture with the gospel. And that we may hear God's word more clearly, as we think of these values. And we can see just [00:18:00] God's beauty and God's love for us. And how he acts towards us.
[00:18:08] That's all we have for today. If you made it this far, would you mind giving review either on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify? Just so you know, too, you can sign up to receive episodes, emailed directly to you on my website, at bitesizeseminary.com. If you want to connect with me, you can do so on my website. Or you can also do so on Twitter or Facebook. All of the links are in the show notes below. Thanks for listening.