Texts in Conversation
Aristotle develops a household code, ranking the friendships between father and son, husband and wife, and master and slave as inherently unequal. The Hellenistic Jewish philosopher Philo draws on this code when teaching the command to honor parents.
Share:
2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics 8:30
Classical
These things are ascribed to ancestors as well. Further, by nature a father tends to rule over his sons, ancestors over descendants, a king over his subjects. These friendships imply superiority of one party over the other, which is why ancestors are honoured. The justice therefore that exists between persons so related is not the same on both sides but is in every case proportioned to merit; for that is true of the friendship as well. The friendship of man and wife, again, is the same that is found in an aristocracy; for it is in accordance with virtue the better gets more of what is good, and each gets what befits him; and so, too, with the justice in these relations. The friendship of brothers is like that of comrades; for they are equal and of like age, and such persons are for the most part like in their feelings and their character. Like this, too, is the friendship appropriate to timocratic government; for in such a constitution the ideal is for the citizens to be equal and fair; therefore rule is taken in turn, and on equal terms; and the friendship appropriate here will correspond. But in the deviation-forms, as justice hardly exists, so too does friendship. It exists least in the worst form; in tyranny there is little or no friendship. For where there is nothing common to ruler and ruled, there is not friendship either, since there is not justice; e.g. between craftsman and tool, soul and body, master and slave; the latter in each case is benefited by that which uses it, but there is no friendship nor justice towards lifeless things. But neither is there friendship towards a horse or an ox, nor to a slave qua slave. For there is nothing common to the two parties; the slave is a living tool and the tool a lifeless slave. Qua slave then, one cannot be friends with him. But qua man one can; for there seems to be some justice between any man and any other who can share in a system of law or be a party to an agreement; therefore there can also be friendship with him in so far as he is a man. Therefore while in tyrannies friendship and justice hardly exist, in democracies they exist more fully; for where the citizens are equal they have much in common.
Date: 350-325 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Philo The Decalogue 1:165
Classical
164 There are also other laws about the fiftieth year, in which what has been enumerated above is performed in the most complete manner; and, what is the most important thing of all, the restitution is made of the different portions of land to those families which originally received them, a transaction full of humanity and equity. 165 And the fifth commandment, that about the honour due to parents, conceals under its brief expression, many very important and necessary laws, some enacted as applicable to old and young men, some as bearing on the relations existing between rulers and subjects, others concerning benefactors and those who have received benefits, others affecting slaves and masters; 166 for parents belong to the superior class of all these divisions just mentioned, the class, I mean, of elders, of rulers, of benefactors, and of masters; and children are in the inferior class, in which are ranked the younger people, the subjects, those who have received benefits, and slaves.
Date: 20-50 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Tags:
Search:
Notes and References
... The commands are organized in a household code, a code whose form goes back to Aristotle. The Stagirite argued that a citizen first had to rule his house and defined this in three relationships“ his relationship to his slaves, his wife, and his children (see also comment on Hypothetica 7.14). He added that there was a similar or subordinate field“ the management of wealth (Politics 1.1253b.1“14). Aristotle’s analysis became the basis for a significant body of literature on household management in the Hellenistic world, which Jews and Christians adopted. The household code here was part of the common ethical instruction that Philo (here and Decalogue 165“67), Josephus (Against Apion 2.189“209), and Pseudo-Phocylides (175“225) shared. Philo deals with two of the three relationships and property. He uses the household code to demonstrate that Judaism offers the same basic values as those held in the larger Greco-Roman world ...
Wright, Benjamin G.
Outside the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture
(pp. 2509-2510) The Jewish Publication Society, 2013
* 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.
Your Feedback:
Leave a Comment
Anonymous comments are welcome. All comments are subject to moderation.