Thinking Like an Ancient
Honor and Shame


The primary value is honor, life is a secondary value in
such a culture. Better to die than to be dishonored or
shamed. Honor was a public and male value in this
culture, shame a private and often female value.
Society was structured such that one got ahead by
means of Honor challenges-- in which there were
always winners and losers. A win-win situation did not
occur.
Group verses Individual


Ancient Mediterranean persons got their
primary sense of identity not from their
uniqueness but from the groups and locale
of which they were a part
For example, their family group, ethnic
group, homeland (e.g. Simon Bar-Jonah;
Jesus of Nazareth; Paul of Tarsus)
Limited Good



In antiquity, goods, services, honor, and the like
were all in limited supply. If one person had them
another did not.
There was not a free market economy. Bartering,
trading, stealing, or winning were the chief means
of obtaining what one did not have.
One could seldom earn improvement in life or
advance because of hard work. It had to be
bestowed by another and one had to know the right
people.
Limited Good
Patron – Client Relationships

The chief means of succeeding in antiquity was
through patronage.
• “you scratch my back and I will scratch
yours” kind of world.
• Favors and payback were the order of the day.
Patron – Client Relationships

The culture was hierarchical; one needed a
patron to gain what one needed.
• Once one entered a patron-client relationship,
it was difficult if not impossible to get out of
it.
• In such a culture, “grace” was a foreign
concept.
Patriarchal World



The world Paul lived in was highly patriarchal. That is,
not only was it a male dominated world, but the major
values of the world were set up to keep it that way.
Ancient literature was almost all written from a male
point of view. Higher education was basically the right
of males, and so most ancient literature was written by
and for men.
In this world, Paul’s attempts to modify patriarchy will
be seen as much more revolutionary than they may
appear today. But it is world-shaking nonetheless.