Honor Your Father and Mother — What Kind of Commandment Is This?

first asked by The Hebrew tradition (the Sinai commandments)

기원전 13~12세기경 (전승 시내산 계명)

THE QUESTION ITSELF

In the Ten Commandments, split between duties to God and duties to others, on which side does honoring one's parents fall?

THE QUESTION · ORIGINAL

כַּבֵּד אֶת־אָבִיךָ וְאֶת־אִמֶּךָ

📜 WHERE THE QUESTION WAS BORN

Honor your father and your mother.

🌿The Lineage — How the Answers Split

The fifth commandment, "honor," was refined with care in the rabbinic tradition, which split it into "reverence" (not sitting in a parent's seat, addressing them with respect) and "honor" (feeding and clothing them) as two joined duties. In the New Testament, Jesus reaffirmed the commandment while rebuking those who used the duty to their parents as an excuse to withhold other good owed to others (Mark 7, the Corban dispute). From a single commandment, two different questions branched: how deeply must one revere, and can this commandment itself be used to shade over other goods left undone?

♾️ WHY IT STILL LIVES

This commandment survives even for those who do not believe in God — because the insight that honoring parents is a choice, not merely a feeling, still tells us what to do on the days love runs cold.

💡 TL;DR

The Ten Commandments are often split: the first four toward God, the latter six toward others.

📝I, Too, Stand Before It

The Ten Commandments are often split: the first four toward God, the latter six toward others. Yet honoring parents is the fifth, sitting right at that boundary — placed even before the bans on murder, theft, and false witness. I do not read this placement as accident: parents are the first beings I ever met, the ones through whom, God-like, I came to be. The command does not say love; it says honor. Love is a feeling, but honor is a choice made by will — and I, too, stand before that choice today.

— ONGO · Curator

✍️Your Answer

The lineage of the ancients ends here. Now it is your turn before the question. There is no right answer — only how you, today, would answer.

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📖 Source: Exodus 20:12. Ancient text in the public domain; rendered and interpreted independently by ONGO.
This is not a museum of answers but a lineage of questions. All sources are public-domain texts; the lineage and reflection are 100% original ONGO content.