How do cultures control people?
  Interior means: guilt
  Exterior means: honor

Honor = a public claim to worth AND a public acknowledgment of that claim.
 Ascribed honor: by birth
 Acquired (achieved) honor: by personal effort, e.g., Jesus heals, his fame/honor spreads (Matt 9:31); also challenge and riposte

Shame = positive: a sense of one’s honor and honor rating, to have a sense of shame
 = negative: to be dishonored, to fail to guard one’s honor; disregard of honor (to be shameless, Sirach 26:10-12)

HONOR
(1) Prov 3:1-2; 4:1-2; 5:20ff;  Sir 3:1-9
 Compare Exodus 20:12//Deut 5:16

 Read Matt 21:28-30 – “ideal vs. real”
  Disobedient son: Deut 21:18-21
  Read Matt 11:19

(2) Prov 3:33-35
 -note the synonyms for honor and shame
 -note the structure of the verses

(3) Humility:
Prov 15:33

Prov 18:12

Prov 22:4

 Luke 18:18-20
 

Exalted/humbled

 Luke 14:1-11 - see Prov 25:6

 Matt 23:1-11
 
 

SHAME

Read Prov 19:26
 Compare Gen 27

Read Prov 25:8

 Luke 12:57-59
 Matt 5:25-26
 Mark 14:53ff
 
 
 

GUILT

 Psalm 32:5
 I acknowledged my sin (hatta’: missing the mark; failure) to thee
 and I did not hide my iniquity ( awon: to be crooked; twisted condition - effect)
 I said “I will confess my transgressions (peša - rebellion; revolt) to the lord”;
 then thou didst forgive the guilt ( awon) of my sin (hatta)

 In the West, the United States, guilt is an inner feeling of remorse or a bad conscience. In the Bible, it is more an awareness of the result of what one has done: broken relationship with God or other humans. It would be fair to say that there is slim evidence in the Bible for guilt in the sense that mainstream U.S. citizens understand that word.
 
 

guilt                                             shame
repress: don’t do it                       suppress: don't do it
don’t even think it                         ok to think about it (fantasize)
 

Matt 5:27-28 - what is Jesus’ attitude toward his culture here?
 Is he counter-cultural? Or counter-structural?
 
 
 

Resources:

 Augsburger, David W. Pastoral Counseling Across Cultures.  Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1986. Chapter Four: “Inner Controls, Outer Controls, Balanced Controls,” pp. 111-143.

 Neyrey, Jerome H., Honor and Shame in the Gospel of Matthew.  Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1998. Especially Chapter 1: Honor and Shame in Cultural Perspective, pp. 14-34

Prizzi’s Honor. Novel by Richard Condon; or view the two-hour feature film (video) if you have the time (in Lauinger)