David A. deSilva

Book Review: “Honor, Patronage, Kinship, and Purity: Unlocking New Testament Culture” by David A. deSilva

Honor, Patronage, Kinship, and Purity: Unlocking New Testament Culture by David A. deSilva introduces readers to the cultural context of the New Testament.

The book is divided into chapters that tackle each of the major topics. There are two chapters on honor and shame. The first introduces the concepts of honor and shame to understand how such concepts worked in the NT period. The second chapter specifically talks about the concepts of in the NT itself. The next two chapters are about patronage. The first is to show how patronage worked, while the second applies that to the notion of grace in the NT. The next two chapters cover kinship. First, deSilva outlines how families worked in the first century world. Then, he applies that in the next chapter to the concept of a “household of God” in the NT. The next two chapters cover purity in the biblical world.

Example after fascinating example is used by deSilva to demonstrate the cultural differences between the NT setting and our own. These are across the whole array of topics deSilva introduces throughout the book. That makes the book not just a resource for learning about the culture of the NT world, but also something to help actually apply that understanding to the Bible. These applications are direct from the text, such as the understanding from the book of Hebrews (13) in which the author talks about the imprisoned being remembered as though they are “the same thing, though separate individuals” (252). This kind of insight is absolutely dripping from the book.

Readers looking to more fully understand the NT should consider this book a must-read. It illuminates much of the cultural context of the Bible.

Honor, Patronage, Kinship, and Purity is a fascinating book that can help change how readers see the Bible. I recommend it for those looking to more deeply understand both the context and meaning of Scripture.

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SDG.

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