Click on the links on the syllabus for the complete text of two of my articles that are relevant:
“‘Beat His Ribs While He is Young’: A Window on the Mediterranean World.” Biblical Theology Bulletin 23 (1993) 101-113.
“Death with Honor: The Mediterranean Style Death of Jesus in Mark.” Biblical Theology Bulletin 25 (1995) 65-70.
Read: John J. Pilch, Cultural Tools for
Interpreting
the Good News, Chapter 2: How a Mediterranean Boy becomes a man,
pp. 21-37.
Introduction:
In the United States: modeling: role models; observational
learning
behavior modification: reward, ignore or
punish
Cognitive: develop inner controls
Contrast two models: Basic Personality Structure (as the twig
is bent...)
Cultural Ideology Model (producing adult heroes
)
BOYS
Middle East: need to develop in the sons loyalty to the family;
patriarch
must be able to impose his will
on the sons
Sirach 3:6-7
1 Tim 3:2, 4
Physical punishment of boys:
Sirach 30:1, 12
Prov 13:24
Prov 19:18
Prov 22:15
Prov 23:13-14
Prov 29:15, 17, 19
Servant Songs in Isaiah
42:1-4 [42:2]
49:1-7
50:4-11 [50:6]
52:13–53:12 [53:3, 7]
Mark 14:36
15:25, 33, 36, 39
Heb 5:7-10
Heb 12:7-11
Gen 22
2 Macc 6
New Insight (2006):
The purpose of physical discipline in
Middle Eastern culture is to make
a man! BUT, what is the son’s perception? If corporal
punishment = parental rejection (Mark 15:34), the result is not
good. Thus the oft-repeated assertion that frequency and
severity ⇨ impaired psychological adjustment is related to rejection
more than to the punishment. Thus, the interpretation of the punishment
is critical (see Cross-Cultural
Research Special Issue 40 [#3,
Aug, 2006] edited by Ronald P.
Rohner.
—
GIRLS:
Sirach 42:9-10 - 6 worries:
Sirach 42:11
Sirach 42:12-13
Sirach 22:3-4
Sirach 25:24 (see 1 Tim 2:11-15), and 26 (see Gen 3:6)
Judith 9:2 and Ephesians 5:21
Meyers, Carol, Discovering Eve: Ancient Israelite Women in
Context
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1988).