Shame
Timothy is urged not to be ashamed of the testimony or of Paul, the Lord’s prisoner (1:8). Paul himself exemplifies not being ashamed of the gospel (1:12) and Onesiphorus, not being ashamed of Paul the prisoner (1:16). Given the potency of shame-honour systems in the first-century Mediterranean world, Bassler concludes that the author is constructing a new honour system, “to encourage bold proclamation of the gospel—in spite of the potentially ‘shameful’ consequences—among an honor-sensitive people.” So he avoids “shameful” components in the summary of the gospel (1:10) and infuses “shame-linked items” such as Paul’s imprisonment with “new categories of honor.”5 These insights from the Graeco-Roman environment are frutiful, but the “sacred writings” that he commends (3:16) and the traditions of Hellenistic Judaism also provided concepts of being ashamed/put to shame.
The hope of not being “put to shame” appears frequently in LXX Psalms (e.g., Pss 21:6 [22:5]; 24:2, 3, 20 [25:2, 3, 20]; 30:2, 18 [31:1, 17]; 33:6 [34:5]; 36:19 [37:19]; 68:7 [69:6]; 70:1 [71:1]; 73:21 [74:21]; 118:31, 46, 80, 116 [119:31, 46, 80, 116]; 126:5 [127:5]),6 along with the expectation that the ungodly will be put to shame (e.g. Pss 6:11 [6:11]; 24:3 [25:3]; 30:18 [31:17]; 34:4 [35:4]; 39:15 [40:14]; 43:8 [44:7]; 52:6 [53:5]; 69:3 [70:2]). Not being put to shame often parallels positive concepts such as rescue or saving, which similarly depend on trust in God, e.g.:
πρὸς σὲ ἐκέκραξαν καὶ ἐσώθησαν ἐπὶ σοὶ ἤλπισαν καὶ οὐ κατῃσχύνθησαν
To you they cried, and were saved; in you they trusted, and were not put to shame.
(Ps 21:6 [22:5])
φύλαξον τὴν ψυχήν μου καὶ ῥῦσαί με μὴ καταισχυνθείην ὅτι ἤλπισα ἐπὶ σέ
O guard my life, and deliver me; do not let me be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.
(Ps 24:20 [25:20])
A contrast is pointed between those who look to the Lord and the ungodly:
κύριε μὴ κατασχυνθείην ὅτι ἐπεκαλεσάμην σε αἰσχυνθείησαν οἱ ἀσεβεῖς καὶ καταχθείησαν εἰς ᾅδου
Do not let me be put to shame, O LORD, for I call on you; let the wicked be put to shame; let them go dumbfounded to Sheol.
(Ps 30:18 [31:17])
There is also the example, suggestive in the context of 2 Tim 2:8, of:
καὶ ἐλάλουν ἐν τοῖς μαρτυρίοις σου ἐναντίον βασιλέων καὶ οὐκ ᾐσχυνόμην
I will also speak of your decrees before kings, and shall not be put to shame;
(Ps 118:46 [119:46])
Outside Psalms, Isa 28:16, ὁ πιστεύων ἐπʼ αὐτῷ οὐ μὴ καταισχυνθῇ, links not being put to shame to trust in God’s “cornerstone,” which Rom 9:33; 10:11 and 1 Pet 3:16 interpret as faith in Christ.
Although there are examples of a more psychological aspect (e.g. Jer 6:15), OT shame is for the most part, “not so much the state of the soul of the αἰσχυνθείς as the situation into which he is brought,”7 an objective condition, usually brought about by God, in consequence of which there is reason to feel shame. Even in the later LXX where Graeco-Roman influence may be detected, e.g. in Sirach’s lists of what it is proper to be ashamed of (41:17–42:1a) and not to be ashamed of (42:1b–8), the older sense of not being “put to shame” is still found (e.g. Sir 24:22; 51:18, 29), illustrating the capacity of Hellenistic Judaism to absorb influences from its environment while retaining distinctively Jewish concepts, and employ vocabulary now with Hellenistic and now with traditional Jewish colouring.
“Shame” references in the NT are often best explained in terms of the Hellenistic socio-psychological concept. In certain contexts, however, particularly those associated with the judgment of God, OT resonances of being “put to shame” may be heard. The two fields surely overlap in the dominical saying,
ὃς γὰρ ἐὰν ἐπαισχυνθῇ με καὶ τοὺς ἐμοὺς λόγους ἐν τῇ γενεᾷ ταύτῃ τῇ μοιχαλίδι καὶ ἁμαρτωλῷ, καὶ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐπαισχυνθήσεται αὐτὸν ὅταν ἔλθῃ ἐν τῇ δόξῃ τοῦ πατπὸς αὐτοῦ μετὰ τῶν ἀγγέλων τῶν ἁγίων.
(Mark 8:38, par. Luke 9:26)
Paul’s pivotal affirmation, οὐ γὰρ ἐπαισχυνομαι τὸ εὐαγγέλιον (Rom 1:16), includes psychological (“I do not feel shame with respect to the gospel”) and sociological (“I refuse to accept a categorisation of the gospel and its ministry as shameful”) dimensions. The references to God’s power to save and to believing/trusting, however, place it in succession to those OT declarations of faith: “I am not put to shame on account of the gospel, because God’s power will save (through it) all who put their trust in him.”8 Both Hellenistic and OT backgrounds should also be taken into account in interpreting the references to shame in 2 Timothy.
Wieland, George M. The Significance of Salvation: A Study of Salvation Language in the Pastoral Epistles. Milton Keynes: Paternoster, 2006. Print.
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