MANNERS AND CUSTOMS
The ancient Mediterranean world (and many cultures even today) was obsessed with honor and shame. Honor was a core value of the biblical world. Scripture is full of stories of people seeking honor and trying to avoid shame. But to complicate that search for honor, the ancients regarded everything in the world as finite. For example, only so much land (and the wealth it provided) existed. To get more, one had to take it away from someone else. And that principle applied to honor as well.
Honor was a public acknowledgment of one’s worth or social value. We could consider it as the status people claimed in the community and the recognition that others gave that claim. It defined the ways they could interact with those above, equal, or below their assumed social standing.
People obtained honor in two ways: ascribed or acquired. Ascribed honor represented the social recognition one gained from the family one was born into. Acquired honor, however, could be earned or obtained through what we might call duels of honor.
But ancient society regarded the supply of honor as finite or limited. The only way to get more honor was to take it from someone else. Thusindividuals constantly challenged each other for additional honor or to protect what they believed they already had.
Such challenges could be positive or negative. Giving someone a gift or a compliment was a positive challenge that demanded a gift or compliment in return, thus balancing out the exchange. Gifts must always be returned in some way. The biblical world considered even bridal shower gifts as only a loan that could givenback.
An insult was an example of a negative challenge. To prevent a loss of honor, the person insulted must respond in some manner. New Testament teaching is to ignore or accept insults and persecution. It would have been a hard thing to follow in a world that demanded that people always defend their honor. Honor often determines who could be potential marriage partners. Other times, honor determines where one might live, whom one could do business with, what religious role one might fulfill, or what social events one could attend. If someone did not avenge even the smallest perceived slight or injury, he permanently lost honor and could be harmed by it for the rest of his life. But not only did the individual himself lose honor, so did his family, making a person even more protective of his honor.
As already noted, women did not have to worry about honor except in one area: sexual purity. They were more concerned with shame; that is, they must always be sensitive about the honor of their male relatives and family. They must always protect it by avoiding anything that would dishonor the family. A man might regain honor, but a woman who lost her sexual honor could never restore it.
In their desire to gain or protect their honor, men had to be always on the alert in public. (No honor could be gained in private.) They had to be aware of almost any word, gesture, or action that others might interpret as undermining their honor. If they felt challenged, they must respond at an equal or (preferably) higher level. Otherwise, they believed, they would forfeit honor.
However, one could only challenge the honor of someone of equal social status. Thus one could not successfully honor-duel with an individual of a higher social level, and one gained nothing by confronting someone of a lower status.
The Pharisees constantly challenged Jesus, seeking to take honor away from Him. What might seem to be only a theological question from themat first was, at the same time a direct attempt to reduce His public status and honor. They were seeking to discredit and thus dishonor Him in the eyes of the people (for example, see Matthew 12). But for them to challenge Him meant that they regarded Him as their social equal (despite the references to Him as being the son of a carpenter [Mark 6:3], a lower socioeconomic status than that of a religious leader). Yet each time Jesus would turn the tables on them. From their standpoint, they instead lost honor, leaving them frustrated and increasingly desperate. It gave them a still further motive to plot His death.
Malinaand Rohrbaugh, Social-Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels.