What Was Envy in an Honor/Shame World?
Did you know, in the extra-Biblical literature of the time of Yeshua/Jesus, that “envy” was always tied to honor?In the ancient world, honor was all about a person’s renown or reputation, as opposed to modern honor, which is about a person’s core integrity. Reputation, glory, esteem, etc. were all words describing how much honor collateral a person possessed within the community.
A person was called envious if they coveted the honor rating of someone else, which led to their grasping at more honor than they were entitled to. In the Bible, we see this best in the form of the honor challenges that the Pharisees (a denomination devoted to Temple-level ritual purity in the home), Scribes (non-priestly legal experts), and the Sadducees (the corrupt and wealthy denomination of “chief priests” who were in bed with Rome and using the Temple for their own gains, as opposed to the faithful rank and file priests) waged against Messiah.
As He dazzled the Jewish faithful and the Jewish sinners with signs and wonders and remarkable teachings, his level of honor, or renown, increased, and the honor level of the Pharisees, Scribes, and Sadducees decreased. Their envy drove them to try and discredit and humiliate him publicly, in order to not only get their own honor back but to become greater than Yeshua in the eyes of the people. In the end, it was their envy that drove the Sadduceean Chief priests to conspire with Rome and have Him killed.
Envy in the ancient world was all about upping your social collateral, your glory, and esteem – honor being more important in the ancient world than money.
This is why Paul listed envy among the works of the flesh in Galatians 5, along with drunkenness and orgies. Envy is a specific and deadly form of coveting that can even lead to murder, but at the very least, is the antithesis of peacefulness and the covenant faithfulness we owe to one another. It was envy that killed Yeshua.
We also see envy on social media today. Have you ever seen one teacher or believer tear down someone else? A lot of times, it comes down to a simple desire to take the audience away from that other person. A true teacher can just teach the truth and trust God to get it to the people who need it, but someone who is grasping for audience share, specifically someone else’s audience share, will try to tear down not false (supposedly) information being put out, but the other teacher personally. That’s exactly what the Pharisees, Scribes, and Sadducees did to Yeshua. It wasn’t always about what He was teaching (although with the Sadducees it always was about that) because the Pharisees and Scribes were often in agreement, but about Yeshua gaining honor, and the Judean big shots losing theirs. Envy killed Yeshua, and we have to be careful not to allow it to run unchecked within the modern social media Body of Messiah that operates on the honor and shame system of likes, shares, and comments.
Grasping for and making claims to honor that didn’t belong to you, in the ancient world, was actually considered to be a sin – in all cultures, not just Israelite. That’s what envy does, and that is why Yeshua was constantly telling people to be happy with taking the low spot at the table, to wear normal length tassles (tzitziyot), and normal sized phylacteries while in prayer. It was all about not coveting honor — not being envious of the renown of others. Our heavenly Father will always exalt us to the position that HE wants us in, if we wait upon Him, and we have to be careful not to try and tear down people whom we may feel (rightly or wrongly) have grasped for more honor than is their due and are riding high. The Proverbs contain quite a few verses about not envying the wicked, for example.
If you want to learn more about Honor and Shame culture in the Bible <—-click here be sure to check out my book, available at Amazon. It’s easy enough for your average 7-year-old to understand, but also engaging enough to teach adults this foundational aspect of Bible context, step by step.