The World of the Bible - Parts 2 - 4

To conclude . . . finally. (Nope! I am not giving an excuse or a reason for my absence! Read smile here.)

Not Right/Wrong but Honor/Shame

We spend all of our discussions centered around whether something is right or wrong. That was seldom, if ever, in the equation during the Biblical era. The question for them was "Will this honor or shame my family?"

For example: When I was about 7 or 8 years old, I stole a candy bar from a local grocery store. My Dad found out. Uh oh. After the obligatory "punishment," I had to go back to the store, apologize and pay for it. He made sure I did too. It would never occur in that fashion in a Bibilcal era. They dealt with things privately. If it were to become public, it would shame the family.

Read the passage where it is Jesus vs. lawyers or vs. the Pharisees. It almost always is an attempt to take his honor.

In their culture, honor was so important, that the position of honor was seated, not standing. To stand was to say you were the lesser. Teaching was almost always done from a seated position. Check out the stories in the Bible, e.g. Jesus sits on a boat to teach. There are exceptions, but not many.

Not Future/Present/Past but Present/Past/Future

In most of our discussions, we talk about tomorrow, the future, first. We talk about where we are headed, our vision, our hopes, etc. Then we talk about today. We barely discuss or learn from the past. We look to the past as a final resort usually.

Biblical personalities, are living in the present. It is like this, for the most part, they were poor. Today was important, not planning for tomorrow." Today we look to the future and plan for it. They live in the present, which comes out of the past, and have little time to discuss the future. They asked for "daily bread," we plan for retirement.

At Passover, a place is set for Elijah, and at one point, someone gets up and goes to the door to see if he is there. It is about the present welcoming the past.

Not Individual but the Group

There is no private rights. The rights of the group is key. All of life is very public. There is no discussion of a right to privacy in the Middle East even today. Everyone is in everyone else’s business. The idea is that the group is what is important.

All of these four items are crucial, but the final one gets me more than the others. What does that say about me?