Shame

VIEW:33 DATA:01-04-2020

SHAME.—1. In the first Biblical reference to this emotion (Gen_2:25; cf. Gen_3:7) ‘shame’ appears as ‘the correlative of sin and guilt’; it is ‘the overpowering feeling that inward harmony and satisfaction with oneself are disturbed’ (Delitzsch, Com., in loc.). From the OT point of view the crowning shame is idolatry: ‘As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they say to a stock, Thou art my father’ (Jer_2:26; cf. Isa_41:11; Isa_42:17). The all-inclusive promise to those who trust in God is ‘none that wait on thee shall be ashamed’ (Psa_25:3 RV [Note: Revised Version.] ; cf. Psa_119:8; Psa_119:30, Isa_45:16 f., Isa_49:23; Isa_54:4 f., Jer_17:13, Joe_2:25 f., Rom_5:5; Rom_9:33; Rom_10:11). The absence of shame is always regarded as an aggravation of sinful conduct: Job (Job_19:3) reproaches his friends because they are ‘not ashamed’ of dealing hardly with him; the climax of Jeremiah’s complaint (Jer_6:15) against those who had ‘committed abomination’ is that ‘they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush’ (cf. Jer_8:12, Zep_3:5; Zep_3:11). The culmination of shamelessness is seen in those ‘whose glory is in their shame’ (Php_3:19); but in this passage, as elsewhere (Isa_50:3; cf. Pro_10:5; Pro_25:3), ‘shame’ is, by a natural transference of ideas, applied not to the inward feeling, but to its outward cause. The degradation of those ‘whose god is their belly’ is seen in their boasting of conduct which ought to have made them ashamed of their perversion of gospel liberty into sinful licence. The return of shame is a sign of true repentance: ‘then shalt thou remember thy ways and be ashamed’ (Eze_16:61, cf. Ezr_9:6).
2. The consciousness of shame varies with the conventional standards adopted in any society. For example, poverty (Pro_13:18), leprosy (Num_12:14), widowhood (Isa_54:4) may be viewed as involving ‘shame,’ though there is no blame. In the sense of violation of propriety St. Paul applies the word to men who wear their hair long and to women who wear it short (1Co_11:6; 1Co_11:14, cf. 1Co_6:5; 1Co_14:35); by an analogous adaptation of its meaning he describes God’s ideal ‘workman’ as one ‘that needeth not to be ashamed’ (2Ti_2:15).
3. In the NT sin is pre-eminently the shameful thing (Rom_6:21, Php_3:19, Eph_5:12, Jud_1:13, 1Jn_2:28; cf. 1Jn_3:6). But the distinguishing characteristic of the early ‘Christian use of the word is’ the trans valuation of values.’ ‘Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, … endured the cross, despising shame’ (Heb_12:2). When St. Paul says ‘I am not ashamed of the gospel’ (Rom_1:16), by a well-known figure of speech his negative statement emphatically asserts his positive glorying (Gal_6:14). To ‘suffer as a Christian’ and ‘not (to) be ashamed’ Is to ‘glorify God’ (1Pe_4:16; cf. 2Ti_1:8 f., 2Ti_1:12; 2Ti_1:16). The same heightening of the contrast is Implied when, on the one hand, the Son of Man declares that in the day of judgment He will he ashamed of all who are now ashamed of Him and of His words (Mar_8:38, Luk_9:26); and on the other hand, St. John’s assurance is that those who abide in Christ ‘may have boldness and not be ashamed before him at his coming’ (1Jn_2:28). Of them who desire a heavenly country ‘God is not ashamed … to be called their God’; for the city He has prepared, they are being prepared by the sanctifying grace of Him ‘who is not ashamed to call them brethren’ (Heb_11:16; Heb_2:11).
J. G. Tasker.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909

shām (בּושׁ, bōsh, ?to be ashamed,? בּשת, bōsheth, ?shame,? קכון, ḳālōn; αἰσχύνη, aischúnē, ?ignominy,? ἀτιμία, atimı́a, ?dishonor,? and other words): An oft-recurring word in Scripture almost uniformly bound up with a sense of sin and guilt. It is figuratively set forth as a wild beast (Jer_3:24), a Nessus-garment (Jer_3:25), a blight (Jer_20:18), a sin against one's own soul (Hab_2:10), and twice as the condensed symbol of Hebrew abomination - Baal (Jer_11:13 margin; Hos_9:10 margin; see ISH-BOSHETH). It is bracketed with defeat (Isa_30:3), reproach (Psa_69:7; Isa_54:4; Mic_2:6), confusion (Isa_6:7), nakedness (Isa_47:3; Mic_1:11), everlasting contempt (Dan_12:2), folly (Pro_18:13), cruelty (Isa_50:6; Heb_12:2), poverty (Pro_13:18), nothingness (Pro_9:7 the King James Version), unseemliness (1Co_11:6; 1Co_14:35 the King James Version; Eph_5:12), and ?them that go down to the pit? (Eze_32:25). In the first Biblical reference to this emotion, ?shame? appears as ?the correlative of sin and guilt? (Delitzsch, New Commentary on Genesis and Biblical Psychology). Shamelessness is characteristic of abandoned wickedness (Phi_3:19; Jud_1:13, margin ?Greek: 'shames'?). Manifestly, then, shame is a concomitant of the divine judgment upon sin; the very worst that a Hebrew could wish for an enemy was that he might be clothed with shame (Psa_109:29), that the judgment of God might rest upon him visibly.
Naturally, to the Hebrew, shame was the portion of those who were idolaters, who were faithless to Yahweh or who were unfriendly to themselves - the elect people of Yahweh. Shame is to come upon Moab because Moab held Israel in derision (Jer_48:39, Jer_48:27), and upon Edom ?for violence against his brother Jacob? (Oba_1:10). But also, and impartially, shame is the portion of faithless Israelites who deny Yahweh and follow after strange gods (Eze_7:18; Mic_7:10; Hos_10:6, and often). But shame, too, comes upon those who exalt themselves against God, who trust in earthly power and the show of material strength (2Ch_32:21; Isa_30:3); and upon those who make a mock of righteousness (Job_8:22; Psa_35:26; Psa_132:18). With a fine sense of ethical distinctions the Biblical writers recognize that in confessing to a sense of shame there is hope for better things. Only in the most desperate cases is there no sense of shame (Hos_4:18; Zep_3:5; Phi_3:19; Jud_1:13); in pardon God is said to remove shame (Isa_54:4 twice; Isa_61:7).
On conditions beyond the grave the Biblical revelation is exceedingly reticent, but here and there are hints that shame waits upon the wicked here and hereafter. Such an expression as that in Daniel (Dan_12:2) cannot be ignored, and though the writing itself may belong to a late period and a somewhat sophisticated theological development, the idea is but a reflection of the earlier and more elementary period, when the voice of crime and cruelty went up from earth to be heard in the audience chamber of God (Gen_4:11; Gen_6:13). In the New Testament there is similar reticence but also similar implications. It cannot be much amiss to say that in the mind of the Biblical writers sin was a shameful thing; that part of the punishment for sin was a consciousness of guilt in the sense of shame; and that from this consciousness of guilt there was no deliverance while the sin was unconfessed and unforgiven. ?Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt.? From one's own past there is no deliverance, save through contrition of spirit and the grace and forgiveness of God. While the sense of shame persists, or, in other words, while the moral constitution of man's nature remains as it is, there will never be wanting an avenger of sin.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.


(usually בּוֹשׁ, αἰσχύνη), a painful sensation, occasioned by the quick apprehension that reputation and character are in danger, or by the perception that they are lost. It may arise, says Dr. Cogan, from the immediate detection, or the fear of detection, in something ignominious. It may also arise from native diffidence in young and ingenuous minds, when surprised into situations where they attract the especial attention of their superiors. The glow of shame indicates, in the first instance, that the mind is not totally abandoned; in the last, it manifests a nice sense of honor and delicate feelings, united with inexperience and ignorance of the world. SEE MODESTY.



CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.

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