For this Blog I have depended on writings of the Jesus Seminar and Dr John J Pilch, a medical anthropologist.
Every society in the world has conventions for social behaviour. When I was growing up, my parents were racist. They came from British stock so anyone who did not fit their white, Eurocentric mold of a “proper Canadian” was looked down upon. Professional training like medicine or law was revered. Wealth was important but it didn’t matter how you got it. Honesty and high morals were talked about, but in the end didn’t they count unless you got caught. All religious leaders were honoured and never suspected of being anything else but virtuous men. Being poor, or having a non-white skin colour, was dishonourable in their minds. In Quebec, where I grew up, if you were English you needn’t bother to learn French; the French had to learn English if they wanted part of the greater society. In the decades since, these old interpretations of honour and shame have changed. Judgements about skin colour, ethnicity and language are slowly being replaced by more tolerant and accepting views. From time-to-time white supremacy still rears its ugly head; anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim epithets are being heard less commonly. In Jesus’ time the culture of the day centred around Honour/Shame and it was practised by all societies bordering the Mediterranean Sea. In the past and presently in Canada we still have the concept of Honour/Shame and it is constantly renewing itself, hopefully with increasingly positive changes. The essential core of Honour/Shame in Jesus’ time was the need to keep a person’s good reputation intact. On the other side, one of the objectives in an Honour/Shame society was to try to erode another person’s honour. This was done in many ways but in the gospels, we see one method practised many times. Remember the parable of the Good Samaritan? An expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Now the expert in the law already knew the answer. Jesus answered him and said, “What is written in the law? He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.” He goes to ask, “And who is my neighbour?” That last question is a “gotcha question” and Jesus avoids answering it directly by telling a parable. The whole idea of the gotcha question was to catch someone like Jesus off guard and thereby erode his honour. We see it all through the gospels. In Jesus’ day everyone was ascribed honour. The trick was to add to it and not lose any. Honour in Jesus time was also attached to his family and how they behaved. In the parable of the Prodigal Son had a father who lost much honour by giving in to his youngest son request and welcoming him home with much love. Everyone listening to the story felt the son should have received a good beating from his father. The concept of Honour/Shame was shared by all societies in the Mediterranean in early Christian times. It was also incorporated dreadfully with the Roman method of capital punishment designed to bring as much shame to the felon as possible. Crying out in pain was dishonourable and certainly crucifixion was incredibly painful. As crucifixion was done in the nude, despite the best efforts of the Renaissance painters to cover the genitalia with a convenient loin cloth, being seen nude was a major dishonour. When we read the scriptures, we need to be on the lookout for the concept of Honour Shame. It comes up many times.
0 Comments
Question: We know the Romans took care of laws for their own citizens and for their Empire but were there laws and enforcement for civil laws for other people?
Someone once asked me if there were laws to protect the ordinary people of Jesus’ day. We know there were laws that were enforced to protect the Citizens of Rome and the Empire. But what could an ordinary farmer in Galilee, for example, do to protect himself from a stronger citizen who was doing him wrong? I do not recall ever having read an historical account of a civil judicial system for the conquered people of the Roman Empire. Although the Sanhedrin, the Jewish court used to settle disputes, did have judges empowered to do that job between people who conformed to Old Testament rules, the court did not cover local disputes like tax gouging, theft, and revenge. These local disputes, which did not fit in with edicts of the Old Testament, needed another remedy. To give you an idea of how these arguments were settled, there is an echo of past practices in today’s world. Do you remember the movie “The Godfather”? At the very beginning of the film, the Godfather was holding court on his daughter’s wedding day. Tradition within the Sicilian community, which is in the Mediterranean Basin like The Promised Land, allowed members of the community to request a special service from the local strongman - The Godfather. Amerigo Bonasera, a member of The Godfather’s extended “family”, whose daughter was assaulted by two young men who had subsequently escaped punishment in a US court, petitioned the Godfather for help. He wanted the boys punished. The Godfather was reluctant to help because Amerigo Bonasera had not paid him due deference over the years. There were all sorts of rules when petitioning The Godfather, not unlike today when dealing with the King of England. In terms of The Godfather, you needed to pay deference and esteem to him at the beginning of your request, then state your request, then again pay more deference and esteem to him before leaving. Amerigo Bonasera did this by their end of their meeting. In Jesus’ day, the Holy Land had many Godfathers who played a role in gaining justice for the “little guy”. There is even more to the story of The Godfather as it applies to Jesus. People in the first century treated God as their Patron. Just look at the three parts of the Lord’s Prayer Jesus taught in Matthew. The first part, “Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”, establishes the proper esteem and due deference to God the Patron before requesting a favour. The prayer goes on to say, “Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil;” this is the request we make to God. Then we finish with another flourish of due deference and esteem: “For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory for ever and ever. Amen.” Now please don’t confuse God with the Godfather played in the same movie played by Marlin Brando. God is not that character! But the form of the Lord’s Prayer takes on the attributes as if you are asking a local Patron for help. It always amazes me how new information about the first century gives us more insight into the Bible and the people of Jesus’ day. Before discussing divorce in the Old or New Testament we need to clearly understand that women in both Testaments were considered chattels, that is property owned by men. Marriages in both Old and New Testaments were arranged by families and were an economic union rather than a Romeo and Juliet love match. Men could easily divorce their wives. Jesus called on men to not divorce their wives. He is specific in Matthew’s gospel 19: 5-9 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.” 7 They said to him, “Why then did Moses command us to give a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her?” 8 He said to them, “It was because you were so hard-hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
So, what was Jesus concerned about? Divorced women usually had no place to go and were subject to physical attack on the street and were vulnerable because they could not defend themselves and had no family structure to defend them. Being deprived of funds they had little access to clothing, shelter, or food. Jobs were not available to women in those times. Theoretically, when women were cast out of a marriage for whatever reason, their lives were at risk unless they could find a relative to take them in: a father, son, brother, uncle and so on. Although there are plenty of examples of men divorcing their wives there are no records of women divorcing their husbands. We can see in the Old Testament where marriages were important. There is a very famous match in the book of Ruth between Ruth, a Moabite and Boaz, a Judean. Inter-marriage between people of different races and cultures was frowned upon by the Judeans. This was the Judeans’ main beef with the Samaritans – the Samaritans intermarried with the Babylonians and were considered “mongrels.” Ruth’s marriage to Boaz had to be approved by the men at the gates of Bethlehem. When it was, it was then approved by the community. Boaz and Ruth were great grandparents of King David. In Jesus’ time, when a woman was divorced by a simple letter from her ex-husband, she often had no place to go. Dr. Brandon Scott, a distinguished member of the Jesus Seminar reflected that every time the word “widow” was used in the New Testament it reflected a divorced person and not a widow as we know it today. Remember the poor widow at the Temple who put all her money into the donation tube was most probably not a widow but a divorced woman (see Mark 12: 41–44). It must have been hard for a woman to be married in Jesus’ time where the husband had the power to dump you out on the street if you did not please him. So how do modern Christians follow the teachings of Jesus in today’s world when marriages do not work but there are all sorts of ways a divorced woman can support herself and children? When we look at the core of Jesus’ teaching it has as its main driving force the concept of Love. In the first century married men and women could have fallen in love and therefore the marriage most probably could have continued well. Look at Joseph and Mary’s relationship. It must have been pretty good as they produced at least 6 children that lived. What Jesus was worried about were wives who were dumped simply for their ex-husbands to find a “better squeeze.” If Jesus lived today, he would worry about the injustice done and not worry about ending unhappy relationships. |
AuthorI'm Rev. Dr. Pirie Mitchell and I live in Ontario, Canada. Archives
May 2023
Categories |
Home |
About |
Contact |
Copyright © 2023 Ask the Preacher