This issue of BTB carries the theme of social dominance as discussed by Colin Patterson in “The World of Honor and Shame in the New Testament: Alien or Familiar?” While the social world of the Bible celebrates the honor of key biblical personages, Patterson suggests that the more generic and thus more broadly accessible characterization may be social dominance: “By drawing attention to social dominance as an important deeper source of honor-shame codes in Mediterranean societies, the way is open to discovering similarities with contemporary Western cultures, and therefore to addressing the hermeneutical question of how we might appropriate the New Testament text for ourselves.”
Patterson's article limits his study to New Testament personages. We present here a set of studies on key First Testament persons in an effort to explore how Patterson's hermeneutical key can apply throughout the Bible.
In studying the Bible cross-culturally, Patterson acknowledges, the Context group gives prominence to the role played by honor and shame in the world of the New Testament, demonstrating that these values were at the heart of social interactions and held a central place within the self-identity and thought processes of individuals of that era. Bruce Malina defines honor with reference to its two core components: “the value of the person in his or her own eyes (that is, one's claim to worth) plus that person's value in the eye of his or her own social group” (Malina, The New Testament World—cited in Patterson—31). The collectivist mentality is implicit in this definition inasmuch as “the person's actions are evaluated in terms of the norms of the groups to which he or she belongs, rather than on his or her own distinctive values.” Thus, socially established role definitions play a pivotal part in such external affirmation.
If left within the social world of the Bible, “the western student can be left in a theological vacuum, knowing that the old interpretive framework no longer holds, but unable to construct a new one that will provide workable interpretations for today's world (Carolyn Osiek, What Are They Saying about the Social Setting of the New Testament?—cited in Patterson—113).
To address this issue, Patterson cites contemporary work in psychology, which has prompted “a significant nuancing and development of traditional accounts of the ways humans operate in, and experience, the social world, chiefly in the direction of giving more weight to the ‘animal’ side of human nature.” In these areas, social dominance has been well studied.
After addressing various aspects of present-day studies in social dominance, Patterson concludes, “The sharp contrasts which members of the Context Group have drawn between these two worlds, I suggest, must be complemented and corrected by the acknowledgement that the pursuit of both group-based honor, on the one hand, and status through individual achievement, on the other, can be subsumed under the broader category of social dominance, a biological/psychological motivational system which underlies each of them.”
Bradford A. Anderson, in “Jacob, Esau, and the Constructive Possibilities of the Other,” focuses on the role of the unchosen brother, Esau, as a displaced firstborn, to discern how Isaac's blessing of Jacob—“Let the peoples serve you and the nations bow down to you and be lord over your brothers” (Gen 27)—relates to Jacob's deference to Esau, his elder brother (Gen 32–33). Anderson reviews the various interpretations of these texts and offers his own: “Recognizing the significant place of the other in this account can help mitigate the triumphalism that is common in readings of these chapters, which in turn can allow the reader to consider the constructive (and surprising) role Esau might have in the unfolding story of Jacob and his blessing. When read from this perspective,” Patterson concludes, “Esau is a reminder that there is room to reflect on these complex issues – blessing and fulfillment, identity and particularity – in light of, not in spite of, the other.”
Don C. Benjamin, in “The Impact of Sargon & Enheduanna on Land Rights in Deuteronomy,” relates stories told about the figure of Sargon of Akkad (2334–2279 BCE) and copied or composed under Sargon II (722–705 BCE) with the Birth Stories of Moses (Exod 1:22–2:10). Notable similarities are interrupted by notable differences. Sargon is a military hero, Moses is not. Moses frees slaves, Sargon does not. “Both however, endow their peoples with enduring economic systems for distributing land use rights.” Sargon appointed Enheduanna, a woman, as high priest, with the title Daughter of Sargon (not necessarily her biological parent). The question of Deuteronomic instructions on land rights is a contested issue, whether it is sexist (abuse of power) or patriarchal (a social structure). Benjamin, following Carole Meyers, treats Deuteronomy as heterarchy, in which women could hold legal title to the land use rights of their household. This article is a gold mine of studies on women's land rights in and outside of Deuteronomy. The nexus between Enheuanna's land management role and that of Moses brings a new focus to the study of Deuteronomy and its inclusion of the rights of women.
Rhiannon Graybill, in “Elisha's Body and the Queer Touch of Prophecy,” focuses on the deficient, powerless, or insufficiently masculine body of the prophet as non-normative and even queer. Graybill considers four incidents in the Elisha cycle revealing how Elisha's prophecy depends on his body, which is simultaneously powerful and weak, a body homosocially positioned, revealing his queer relationship to norms of masculine embodiment. Graybill concludes: “Centering on Elisha's body offers a model of new ways of thinking about masculinity, embodiment, prophecy, and vocation.”
Unsok Hur, in “The Disciples’ Lack of Comprehension in the Gospel of Mark,” cites the trauma of Jesus’ execution, an ignominious death that would bring shame to them all, as the occasion for a creative recasting of events in which Jesus gains dominance over death and the disciples come to a fuller awareness of the ongoing messianic miracle that they hitherto could not comprehend. The masterful contrast between the inconceivable and the real, the death and the resurrection, illumines how Mark set the stage for future Gospels.
These studies all explore the issue of dominance in their respective social contexts: the displacement of the firstborn, the land rights of women, the shallowness of heteronormativity, and the miracle of messianic dominion over death.
