(c) Children and parents
(6:1-4).
6:1. Children, obey your parents in the Lord; for this is just. 2 Honour thy father and motherseeing it is the first commandment with promise 3 that it may be well with thee and so thou shalt live long upon the land. 4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath; but nurture them in discipline and admonition of the Lord.
1-4. The exposition of the relation of the wife to the husband is followed naturally by an exposition of the relation of children to parents. Obedience (1-3) is met by loving education (4).
1.
ta; t. uJpak. t. g.
] Obedience is substituted for subjection (Eph. 5:22 f.) here and in vs. 5, parallel with Col. 3:20, 22. For
uJpakouvein, uJpakohv
, compare Rom. 6:16
f.; Heb. 5:8 f.
ejn kurivw/
] The child can recognise his spiritual relation to Christ in the earliest years, before doctrine is grasped intellectually. There is from the first a Divine element in all the parts of human life, and St Paul assumes the ideal as the standard. [Origen,
Cat. Cr. Eph.
208 observes
ajmfivbolovn ejsti to; rJhtovn: h[toi ga;r toi'" ejn kurivw/ goneu'sin crh; uJpakouvein ta; tevkna h] ejn kurivw/ dei' uJpakouvein ta; tevkna toi'" goneu'sin
.]
divkaion
] The obligation lies in the nature of the relation. Compare Acts 4:19; Phil. 1:7; 2 Thess. 1:6; 2 Pet. 1:13.
2.
tivma
] Obedience must be founded on honour and find expression, not only in act but in feeling. The general command (
uJpakouvete
) is supplemented by the personal command (
tivma
) from the Decalogue (Ex. 20:12). [Cf. Deut. 5:16
tivma t. patevra sou k. t. mhtevra sou, o}n trovpon ejneteivlatov soi Kuvrio" oJ qeov" sou, i{na
k.t.l.
] The commandment (
ejntolh;
) is quoted [but without the promissory clause] in the Gospels: Matt. 15:4; 19:19 and parallels (Mark 7:10; Lk. 18:20).
For
tima'/n
see 1 Tim. 5:3; 1 Pet. 2:17 (
pavnta" timhvsate, t. basileva tima'te
).
h{ti"
] Eph. 3:13;
seeing it is
and therefore claims regard. The interpretation of
ejntolh; prwvth ejn ejpaggeliva/
is extremely uncertain. The words may mean seeing it is a commandment of primary importance accompanied also by a promise (comp. Matt. 22:38
au{th ejsti;n hJ meg. kai; prwvth ejnt
., cf. Mark 12:28); or, as Chrysostom appears to take it, seeing it is a commandment preeminent in the promise which is attached to it (
ouj th'/ tavxei ei\pen aujth;n prwvthn ajlla; th'/ ejpaggeliva/
). Others take it as the first commandment in the Law to which a promise is attached, or, since the words are addressed to children, the first, earliest, commandment to be learnt.... No
explanation seems to be wholly satisfactory. [The alternative punctuation
prwvth, ejn ejpaggeliva/ i{na
(Westcott and Hort
marg.
) leads to a slightly modified form of the first of the interpretations here recognised: a primary commandment, carrying with it the promisethe offer and the benediction
that it may be well with thee and that thou shalt live long upon the land.
]
3.
i{na...gevnhtai kai; e[sh/
...] A similar combination of moods with
i{na
in the reversed order is found in Apoc. 22:14, and
i{na
occurs elsewhere with the future: 1 Cor. 9:18; Gal. 2:4. The difference between the moods is preserved:
that it may be well...and
so
thou shalt be
....
ejpi; th'" gh'"
]
upon the land.
The remainder of the quotation is assumed to be known.
4. kai; oiJ patevre" ...] The duty of parents is connected closely with the duty of children (so Eph. 69). There is no kaiv in c. 5:25. Fathers stand in place of parents (vs. 1), because the government and discipline of the house rest with them.