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Honor, Patronage, Kinship & Purity: Unlocking New Testament Culture

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This book is helpful to the aspiring biblical scholar and to the Christian layman. It situates the Bible firmly in its 1st Century mediterranean culture, first by exploring the contemporary texts, then examining the scriptures. At the end of the chapters dealing with scripture, he briefly writes on the practical applications of this knowledge, which is particularly useful. Some feel that he wrecks his book this way, by forcing 1st Century culture into the service of 21st century protestant evangelicalism. However, it is always presented as either a way to fulfill the Great Comission or how to apply the New Testament, a group of books nearly 2000 years old, to our modern lives. I recommend this above Bruce Malina's "The New Testament World" because of its clarity and practical application, although both are wonderfully informative.

In studying the New Testament, or any ancient text, we must understand much about the environment it came out of--the societal values, the cultural assumptions, the historical context, etc--otherwise we unwittingly anachronize our interpretations and read ancient literature as if they were written in our day. David deSilva, a member of the Context Group, has here a wonderful and informative survey of four key social values. Not only does he have a very accessible explanation of each value, he follows with a series of application to the New Testament texts. The client-patron model is observed in Lk 7:2-10 (p.123), which serves as an excellent illustration of how patronage functioned. His discussion of grace (favor) is fascinating (ch. 3), presenting it through the eyes of the ancients. Grace must be met with grace; favor must always give birth to favor; gift must be met with gratitude. (p. 105) He cites Seneca's explanation of the three Graces , which is indeed, in deSilva's words, most revealing . This is an important book, one to be studied alongside other Context Group publications. It will, with diligent study, do much to 'unlock' the background of the New Testament.

I would also note, since there is an excellent review by Loren Rosson (my addition can be taken as supplementary or confirmatory), that the particular segment referred to in p.84 is a short section and can easily be skipped. One can come to the book strictly for the social sciences and skip over the application parts--or skim them for helpful references.

DeSilva argues in "Honor, Patronage, Kinship,and Purity" that we need to understand these four pivotal concepts in order to unlock the bible in its original context. Our culture, with its emphasis on individualism, has lost its sense of shame and dishonor which were so important in the ancient world.

When the Pharisees challenge Jesus because he eats without washing, they challenged his honor, not just his adherence to purity laws. A need to seek approval from others was pervasive throughout the ancient world, and especially so among Jews. Status and wealth were typically imbued with great honor among the Romans, but right behavior and leading a blameless life was more honorable among the Jews.

There is an interesting discussion of the early Christians. "Strict avoidance of participation in idolatrous worship meant that the Christians would need to remove themselves from much of the public life of their city" (p 47). They formed their own kinship group instead. The believers in Corinth, for example, gained honor by giving alms to congregations in need. Instead of the usual patronage system so common in Rome, a Christian was told to be grateful, not to his wealthy benefactor, but to the God who gave him life. "God's patronage of the Christian community is evidenced in the growth of...churches and members" (p 133).

Kinship was the primary source of status, a tendency even more pronounced in Jewish culture. Hence legitimacy of relationship is very important. Huge lists of genealogies were kept in the temple to show who was eligible to be a priest. And later, in early Christianity, much was made of Jesus being the son of the Father, and of adopting us as his legitimate heirs.

A very useful book.

The subtitle of this book--Unlocking New Testament Culture--says it all. As a seminary student, I have found HPKP to be a great resource, not only for writing papers, but for deepening my own understanding of Scripture. The book covers four aspects/concepts prevalent in first century culture, devoting two chapters to each one. As deSilva unpacks these concepts and shows how the gospels and epistles are steeped in them, the New Testament comes alive in a whole new way. Understanding the ancient concepts of patronage and reciprocity lays a great foundation for understanding the gospel itself. Nothing could be more fundamental. This book has helped me enter into the world of the apostles and my faith has increased as a result. It is well-written, easy to read, and well worth every penny.

I've been a student of the Bible for decades, read dozens of books and commentaries on the Bible but deSilva has surprized me with the clarity that he gives to the mind and community of the early church. The New Testament has a new light for me as I view it in the context of the world view of Jesus' first disciples.

David deSilva attempts to explain the most basic context of New Testament culture (hence the book's subtitle: "Unlocking New Testament Culture") by breaking his book into four parts (the eponymous Honor, Kinship, Patronage, and Ritual Purity) and further subdividing each part into two (historical background and application).

In the section he devotes to laying the historical background of each section, he quotes heavily from Biblical, extrabiblical, and secular sources of the early Church's day along with other scholars living today. These sections I found the most interesting as it opened my eyes to just how different a First Century Jew (or even, a First Century pagan living in the Roman Empire) thought and behaved. They saw the world through vastly different eyes and it would behoove all of us living today to look through them as they were and not what we think they are.

In the section he devotes to application, deSilva attempts to apply what we've learned to how the Church behaved and how the Church today should act. These parts of the book have lots of gems and only one turd, which I'll get to later.

While I had some idea what he would say in each section, his part about Ritual Purity was almost totally new. We all know about the so-called archaic laws the Jews had to follow, many of which seems nonsensical to us. DeSilva does a good job in explaining how it made sense to them (and this is way more important than it making sense to US) and further explains how Jesus and the early church leaders rewrote the purity map as they ushered in the New Covenant. To put it simply, all ritual guidelines that were put in place to separate Jew and Gentile were done away with as they no longer had any place in God's plan that included both Jew and Gentile; but all guidelines that were established to separate God's holy people from an unholy, unbelieving world were maintained.

By and large, I think Dr. deSilva did a great job with his book. It's easy to read, properly cited, and so on - but I do have one caveat. In the section he dedicates to explaining riposte, I fear that deSilva let his non-objective self get the better of him. He does a fine job explaining what honor challenges and riposte are while providing a few examples of them, but he curiously omits ALL the riposte that Jesus and his followers delivered, instead he encourages the reader that riposte has no place in the Church. We are, as he says, supposed to turn the other cheek and not sink to the level of the unbelievers. Even if we aren't supposed to engage in riposte, deSilva had no right when it came to his integrity and objectivity to just sweep these passages under the rug. He doesn't explain how we are supposed to view these instances, he just doesn't mention them at all. However, I saw no other instance where deSilva was obviously wrong and the rest of the book still appears to be a gem.

I HEARTILY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO EVERYONE, BELIEVER AND UNBELIEVER ALIKE It breaks down old presuppositions in favor of true historical context and it does it in a very readable format. David deSilva has the professional credentials to back it up and it's properly cited throughout. Besides my one word of warning, I can't give any other criticism. Buy it. Now.

Punk.

I purchased this book because of personal research that I am doing on patronage in the ancient world. It was very helpful and delivered just what I expected from the publishers blurb. I would recommend this book for anyone wanting a deeper understanding of the New Testament world that goes beyond a simple Bible Handbook or Bible Dictionary. The author is very exhaustive and gives references and footnotes to further study. I have already added some of his references to my wishlist for future purchase.

At first glance this book looks like it might be a treasure which builds and expands on the important work of the Context Group (a body of scholars who have for years been developing excellent social-science and anthropological models to help understand the bible). It promises to "unlock New Testament culture" and hints at some good applications of the honor-shame, patron-client, kinship, purity, and challenge-riposte models. But it doesn't take long before the reader smells a bad stink. While thoroughly educated in the social sciences, David deSilva uses his knowledge selectively by pressing it into the service of Protestant evangelism.

For instance, the author draws a parallel between the persecutions of the early Christians and the "subtle pressures being exerted on [us modern evangelicals] to soften our commitment to 'one faith, one Lord' in the name of toleration, pluralism, and multiculturalism" (p 84). The parallel is ridiculous, of course, but deSilva goes on bemoaning the evils of modern liberalism as if they're terribly relevant to the subject at hand: "Desire to make room at the table for everyone's beliefs has made it very unpopular to claim to have the Truth and try to win others from their traditions to one's own... Religion is declared out of place in public spaces like businesses and schools..." This sort of rhetoric crops up throughout the book, and it's enough to hurt one's stomach.

In discussing the phenomenon of challenge-riposte, deSilva claims that the Christian movement sought to cultivate a specific Christian riposte over and against much of Judaism and the Greco-Roman world. "Followers of Jesus overcame challenges to honor not through using the same currency of insult or violence that the outside world threw at them, but rather they met hostility with generosity, violence with courageous refusal, curse with blessing from God's inexhaustible resources of goodness and kindness." (p 71) This is only half correct. While it's true that the early Christian movement was characterized by non-violence and (depending on the situation) generosity and kindness, that's certainly not the whole picture. Jesus himself was extremely foul-mouthed when engaged in challenge-riposte. "Brood of vipers" (snake bastards), "hypocrites", "blind guides", "whitewashed tombs" (beautiful on the outside, full of bones and decay on the inside), and "offspring of the devil" were among his favorite insults -- nasty name-calling which the author treats rather evasively (pp 62, 163, 282). Likewise, the apostle Paul enjoyed heaping curses and diatribes on friend and foe alike -- on the "circumcision dogs" at Philippi, on his friend Peter the "hypocrite", on his "foolish" and "bewitched" converts in Galatia (and on those "accursed" people who were influencing his poor converts), and many more. DeSilva hardly does justice to early Christianity as part of an agonistic milieu.

Save for a brief allusion to The Testament of Joseph (p 171), deSilva devotes no attention to the phenomenon of honorable lying -- which is hardly surprising, since an evangelical would have no use for such a concept. But in collectivist cultures like the ancient Mediterranean, lying could be very honorable. Outsiders and enemies had no right to the truth, which is why, for instance, Jesus lied to his brothers who "did not believe in him" (Jn 7:5), saying that he would not go to the festival in Jerusalem (Jn 7:8), yet doing exactly that as soon as they walked away (Jn 7:10). By the same token, insiders and friends preferred (and expected) to be lied to, if the truth would otherwise have offended their feelings. Lying in order to (a) deceive or degrade outsiders, or (b) preserve harmony among insiders, were both equally honorable. But deSilva has nothing to say about this phenomenon. For a book that promises to "unlock honor-shame culture", this omission is a serious shortcoming.

One strong point in deSilva's favor is that he cites a lot of primary source material, which is helpful. And he does make some good points, here and there. The book is definitely worth reading, despite being marred by an evangelical agenda. But those who are really interested in "unlocking the culture of the New Testament" should stick to material written by deSilva's betters -- Bruce Malina, Richard Rohrbaugh, Jerome Neyrey, and other members of the Context Group.