Excellent book covering some counter intuitive cultural facets of scripture. This book is a must for anyone who wants to know what scripture means when it says "friend," "brother," "clean," "unclean," "holy," and "sanctified." The four themes discussed in this book are necessary to understand regardless of how someone views deSilva's Bibliology or hermeneutic (which I personally do not agree with, but in no way did it impede the value of this work).