Rabbi Jeffrey Feinberg PhD and Pat Feinberg MST MA have served the Messianic Jewish community for decades. Their FLAME Foundation reading calendar lists traditional readings from the Torah and Prophets, with related readings from the New Covenant. The Walk series (Walk Genesis! through Walk Deuteronomy!) provides devotional commentary according to this reading cycle, and the Tree of Life Bible (TLV, Baker 2015) marks these sections as well as preserving the Tanakh book order of the Hebrew Scriptures. The Feinbergs are Abraham Center faculty at Dallas International University.
Honor-Shame Perspectives in Deuteronomy
Abstract
The paper applies an honor-shame lens from social anthropology to the blessings and curses in Deuteronomy, to better understand how they function to elicit emotions and shape moral behaviors. The perspective illuminates a fundamental dimension of the divine-human relationship in Israel’s covenant, including New Covenant relationships as well.
Applying this honor-shame exegetical perspective helps answer important questions such as: Did Torah require complete cancellation of debts during the sabbatical year? How did Israel’s failure to observe this ruling relate to Jesus’ comment that Israel society would “always” have the poor? In what ways does Torah address societal norms and predispositions toward the poor? How is a “curse” or “evil eye” understood in an honor-shame culture?
Using the Pitts-Rivers model, honor is defined as a nexus between societal ideals and an individual’s personification of those same ideals. The model categorizes honor by the parameters of societal interaction, physical body and property, and divine-human relationship. The findings have implications for Bible translation in honor-shame cultures.