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Social-Science Commentary
By Bruce J. Malina and Richard L. Rohrbaugh Fortress Press, 1992, 413 pages Review by Barry Cramer Click on book . . .If you purchase this book from our site Amazon.com will support us financially. ISBN NO. 0-8006-2562-5 read other christian book reviews >> The "context" of any given biblical passage is more than what comes before it and after it on the written page. "Context" is also the world of the writer and that of the reader---their "social locations", if you will. This volume reminds us that there is a huge gulf between the context of the biblical writers and their intended audiences and the context of an audience in modern North America. These authors reveal how the social sciences---in particular, the fields of anthropology and sociology---can be useful in bridging that cultural gulf. Bruce J. Malina is professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Creighton University. This is one of several volumes authored, co-authored, or edited by him. Other titles include Christian Origins and Cultural Anthropology (1986); Paul, in Other Words: A Culture Reading of His Letters (1990) and Portraits of Paul: An Archeology of Ancient Personality (1996; both with Jerome H. Neyrey); Windows on the World of Jesus (1993); On the Genre and Message of Revelation: Star Visions and Sky Journeys (1995); Revelation (with John J. Pilch, 2000); The New Testament World: Insights from Cultural Anthropology (2001). Richard L. Rohrbaugh, the co-author of this volume, is Professor of Religious Studies at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, where he teaches courses on Jewish and Christian origins. His special area of research is the anthropology of the early Christian period and especially the social and cultural world of the New Testament. In addition to co-authoring this volume with Bruce Malina, he is the author of five other books, including The Biblical Interpreter: An Agrarian Bible in an Industrial Age (1978), and The Social Sciences and New Testament Interpretation (ed., 1997). Readers who are familiar with William Barclay’s Daily Study Bible series will find a somewhat familiar format in Social-Science Commentary. The biblical text is printed in short sections (New Revised Standard Version) followed by appropriate background commentary. For Malina and Rohrbaugh, the comments take two forms: textual notes of a few sentences at most, and longer "reading scenarios"—brief essays on particular cultural aspects of the Mediterranean social system. One learns the plausible demographics of ancient Palestine. The average life expectancy (for those surviving infancy) may have been about 40 years. More than 90% of the people were illiterate peasants scratching out an agrarian subsistence. Diet for the peasants was mostly vegetarian, with meat being eaten rarely because of its expense. A small elite (1 to 3%) owned most of the arable land (1/3 to 2/3) and ruled. Most significantly for North American readers, there was no middle class. An example of the reading scenarios is this one on "Forgiveness of Sins", found at Matthew 6:14. "In an honor-shame society, sin is a breach of interpersonal relations. In the Gospels the closest analogy to the forgiveness of sins is the forgiveness of debts (Matt. 6:12; see Luke 11:4), an analogy drawn from pervasive peasant experience. Debt threatened loss of land, livelihood, family. It made persons poor, that is, unable to maintain their social position. Forgiveness would thus have had the character of restoration, a return to both self-sufficiency and one’s place in the community. Since the introspective, guilt-oriented outlook of industrialized societies did not exist, it is unlikely that forgiveness meant psychological healing. Instead, forgiveness by God meant being divinely restored to one’s position and therefore being freed from fear of loss at the hands of God. Forgiveness by others meant restoration to the community. Given the anti-introspective attitude of Mediterranean people, "conscience" was not so much an interior voice of accusation as an external one---what the neighbors said, hence blame from friends, neighbors, or authorities. Consider Jesus’ concern with what people thought of him (Matt. 16:13). Note Paul’s similar concern with what people thought of him and what outsiders thought of Christian groups. An accusation had the power to destroy, while forgiveness had the power to restore." The entry on "Social (Exchange) Relations", found in conjunction with Matthew 5:39-42, illustrates the shorter textual notes. In that passage Jesus advocates "turning the other cheek", giving one’s cloak as well as their coat, giving to everyone who begs, and not refusing anyone who wants to borrow. Malina and Rohrbaugh note that this passage is "clearly addressed to the well-to-do elite: those who have an extra coat, who can lend money and from whom others can beg." Other aspects of the Mediterranean social system elucidated by the textual notes and reading scenarios include: Barrenness, Challenge-Riposte, Dyadic Personality, Honor-Shame Societies, Kinship, Love and Hate, Meals, Patronage System in Roman Palestine, Peasant Household Economics, Purity/Pollution, Robbers/Social Bandits, Surrogate Family, Status Degradation Rituals, Swaddling Clothes, Tax (Toll) Collector, and Three-Zone Personality, among many others. That some of these headings are meaningless without explanation demonstrates the importance to modern readers of learning the cultural background that a book such as this provides. Since the Synoptic Gospels share the same perspective and much of the same material, the entries for the three Gospels share much in common. The resulting redundancy, which the authors acknowledge, might have been avoided had it been complied as a dictionary rather than as a commentary. The former approach, of course, requires that the reader know which entries to read. I suspect most readers will appreciate having background information directly tied to specific biblical passages. Rating: 1 2 3 4 5 Barry Cramer earned his B.A. in Social and Behavioral Sciences from Ohio State University.
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