Client-Patronage Relationships in the New Testament

[WalkerW]

I have taken an interest in those advocating that the client-patron relationship shapes the ideas of grace, faith, and works in the New Testament. The main scholar I've read on the subject is David DeSilva:

"People in the United States and northern Europe may be culturally conditioned to find the concept of patronage distasteful at first and not at all a suitable metaphor for talking about God