Introduction

One of the principles of hermeneutics is to identify the similarities and differences between the social world of the modern reader and the social world of the Bible. The reason for doing so is to reduce the number of assumptions we make about the meaning of the text. If we project our social world into the biblical text, we will develop a skewed (or downright inaccurate) interpretation of the text. Mark 10 provides an excellent example of this.

The social world of Mark 10 maps over to the modern world in many ways, including divorce, children, wealth and poverty, interest in salvation, and behind-the-scenes networking for higher positions of status. The common mistake is to assume the world in Jesus’ day viewed these concepts the same way we do. By doing so, we miss the full weight of the meaning of the text.

In the following paper, I argue that Jesus intentionally overturned the honor-shame culture of the ancient Mediterranean world when he defined what it means to be his disciple.

There is no explicit ‘application’ at the conclusion of the paper. I invite the reader to analyze the aspects of honor, shame, and status that Jesus explicitly confronts in his world against their own modern culture’s system of social status.

Happy Bibleing!