Bearing Christ's Reproach, The Challenge of Hebrews in an Honor Culture

Early Christians faced a number of challenges to persevering in their commitment to the new movement which was spreading throughout the Mediterranean. Rarely during the first century did they experience persecution in the form of official sanctions or executions, but very commonly they faced a variety of levels of unofficial pressure to return to the values and commitments of the culture from which they converted, whether Greco-Roman or Jewish. The Epistle to the Hebrews provides a window into how the larger society applied pressure to early Christians to shame them back into conformity with their neighbours, as well as into one Christian leader's strategies for insulating his readers from those pressures. As such, Hebrews becomes an illuminating text for considering how, in every age, to sustain commitment to the Christian world-view and ethos in a non-supportive environment. Intended for the non-specialist.David Arthur Desilva is the author of 'Bearing Christ's Reproach, The Challenge of Hebrews in an Honor Culture', published 1999 under ISBN 9780941037860 and ISBN 094103786X.