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Sirach says God places a father above his children and backs a mother’s claim over them. Hierocles, a second-century Stoic, calls parents earthly gods more deserving of honor than the gods themselves, reflecting a similar family ethic.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Sirach 3:2
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
1 Listen to me your father, O children; act accordingly, that you may be kept in safety. 2 For the Lord honors a father above his children, and he confirms a mother's right over her children. 3 Those who honor their father atone for sins,
Hierocles On Parents
How One Should Behave toward One's Parents
Classical
After speaking of the gods and our country, what person deserves to be mentioned more than, or prior to our parents? Hence it is requisite that we should discourse about them. He, therefore, will not err who says, that they are certain secondary and terrestrial Gods; since on account of their proximity to us, they are, if it be lawful so to speak, more to be honored by us than the gods themselves. But it is necessary, previously, to assume, that the only measure of gratitude towards them is a perpetual and unremitting promptitude to repay the benefits we have received from them; since, though we should perform many things for their sake, yet they will be far less than what they deserve. At the same time, also, it may be said, that these our deeds are nearly theirs, because they produced us by whom they are performed. As therefore, if the works of Phidias and of other artists should themselves produce certain other things, we should not hesitate to say that these latter, also, were the works of the artists; thus, likewise, it may be justly said, that our performances are the deeds of our parents; through whom we likewise derived our existence.
Date: c. 120 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
... argument concerning wife and children precedes that concerning parents, the latter argument, nevertheless, begins by pointing out that one’s duties toward parents must be treated immediately after those due to country, and so before those due to wife and children: ‘After the discourse concerning gods and country, what other person could one mention first if not one’s parents? Hence we must speak about these, whom one would not err in calling as it were second and terrestrial gods, and indeed because of their nearness, if it is lawful to say so, even more to be honored than the gods.’ Further, at the end of the discussion of duties toward one’s country, a kind of parity in rank seems to be recognized between country and parents, in that one is supposed to honor the former more than the latter but venerate the latter more than the former: ‘This reasoning, indeed, suggests that we honor our country, which is one, on a par with our two parents, so as in fact to prefer our country to either one of those who bore us, and not even to honor the two together more than it, but rather to hold them in equal respect’ ...
Ramelli, Ilaria
Hierocles the Stoic: Elements of Ethics, Fragments, and Excerpts
(p. lxxx) Society of Biblical Literature, 2009
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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