What do the words “honor” and “shame” mean? What is their theological meaning? These questions are surprisingly complex, for the several reasons listed here. This post explains 7 challenges with defining “honor” and “shame.”

  1. Honor and shame are invisible. The terms are social constructs, abstract ideas that exist only inside of people (FYI, that does not mean shame is only subjective). Shame and honor are not concrete nouns like “chair” or “girl” that can be observed via the five senses. Though they assume visible forms, honor and shame exist within.
  2. Honor and shame are multivalent. The words have multiple senses of meaning, some of which appear contradictory. For example, shame is sometimes good, yet sometimes bad. Also, the line between honor and pride can be fine. Defining the terms sort of feels like measuring the length of the wind. How can you quantify something so elusive?
  3. Honor and shame are emotions, not ideas. “Honor” and “shame” are not ideas in the brain; they are background emotions pervading the soul. People simply feel shame. So any attempt to cognitively inspect and examine “shame” takes it out of its natural habitat. The meaning of honor is also highly connotative, as every person has their own experience of it. So, honor and shame are more like “love” or “peace,” those elusive realities that all people experience, yet philosophers continue to quibble about.
  4. Honor and shame don’t get defined biblically. People define the terms mostly anthropologically or psychologically, and not biblically. Though there are many good Christian books about honor and shame, few inquire about the biblical definition of honor and shame. When reading the Bible, we often assume a twenty-first-century definition of psychological shame, which creates issues.
  5. Honor and shame are broad concepts with multiple words. Many people know that there are multiple Greek words for “love”—philia, agape, eros, etc. The same is true of “honor” and “shame.” They each have many Greek and Hebrew words. And to further complicate matters, the most common words do not always mean “honor” and “shame.” For example, the primary OT word for “glory” (Heb kavod) literally means “weight.” The main NT word for “honor” (Gr timē) first means “price.” Semantic domains are quite foggy, especially for non-native speakers of the biblical languages.
  6. Honor and shame have many synonyms. The Bible uses many words besides “honor” and “shame” to explain the idea. If you were counting the occurrences of shame, how many would you count from Psalm 44:13–15? Just one, or seven?

      You have made us the taunt of our neighbors, the derision and scorn of those around us. You have made us a byword among the nations, a laughingstock among the peoples. All day long my disgrace is before me, and shame has covered my face.

  1. Honor and shame are symbolic. They are communicated mostly through symbols. For example, a biblical theology of shame and honor would be incomplete apart from examining “feet” and “head,” or “crown” and “dirt.” For those attempting to define the concept biblically, this creates endless research possibilities. For example, how many “occurrences of shame” are in this passage? Just one, or eight?

Behold, I am against you, declares the LORD of hosts, and will lift up your skirts over your face; and I will make nations look at your nakedness and kingdoms at your shame. I will throw filth at you and treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle. And all who look at you will shrink from you. (Nahum 3:5-7)

Defining “honor” and “shame” is more complex than the cumulative results of a word search. A proper lexical understanding of honor of shame must analyze the “concept,” not just the word. Upcoming posts will analyze the language of honor and shame in the Bible. The four posts will introduce: OT honor, OT shame, NT honor, and NT shame. The posts certainly are not exhaustive, but only starting points for deeper analysis.

This post originally posted at https://honorshame.com/definition-honor-shame/ and used by permission of HonorShame.com.