Giving Back Our Deserved Honor—Taking Philippians 2:5-11 and 4:4-9 as Examples

Giving Back Our Deserved Honor—Taking Philippians 2:5-11 and 4:4-9 as Examples

Michelle HY CHAN

New Testament scholar Vernon Robbins highly values the importance of anthropology in the study of the New Testament, pointing out that the authors of the New Testament deliberately cultivated a unique culture of Christianity through their writings. This is to distinguish the Christian community from other groups in society and to give them a special and attractive identity so that they would not be absorbed by other contemporary cultures. Another New Testament scholar, Joseph Hellerman, points out that the colony of Philippi was highly conscious of social status symbols. In addition, Paul used quite a lot of honor and shame language in Philippians. It is thus reasonable to assume that the Philippians were living in a strong culture of honor and shame.
The purpose of this article is to explore how Paul uses an honor and shame discourse in Philippians to construct the concept of honor and shame in Christian culture. On the one hand, it is to provide a powerful justification for the humiliation suffered by Jesus and Paul himself. On the other hand, it serves to transform the Philippians' cultural values of honor and shame, thus helping them to establish their Christian identity. This article first explores the concept of honor and shame in other non-Christian cultures by examining the literature of the Greeks, the Romans, and the Jews. Then an analysis is made by comparing their concept of honor and shame with that in the discourse of Philippians 2:5-11 and 4:4-9, so as to get a glimpse of the Christian concept of honor and shame that Paul wants to construct.