Benefaction, gratitude, and reciprocity within the Bible

Abstract

Gratitude as a response to benefactions is manifest variously in social interactions as remembered by biblical narratives. Attention to key vocabulary, which was particularly developed in the patron-client relationships of the Graeco-Roman cultures, is fruitfully joined with attention to gestures, postures, public settings, and other non-verbal modes of communication to witness how gratitude was an essential to these relationships. This article explores several stories from the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament to discern how the reciprocity of benefaction and gratitude operated. It will also describe how Divine benefaction and human gratitude shared significant similarities with these expressions of reciprocity.