What they say has been added to the Fifth Commandment.
What they say has been added to the Fifth Commandment.
§ 76. Let us see what they claim has been added to the Second Table of the Law. To the Fifth Commandment [Exod. 20:12] they say that this has been added: “what we have in the New Testament about the duties of magistrates and subjects, masters and servants, husbands and wives” (p. 192).
We respond. But indeed the same explanations of the commandment about honoring parents are given in the Old Testament. For the Decalogue must be considered not only in those statements and very few words with which it is described in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5; rather, it must be understood according to the interpretation of Moses and the prophets. The title “father” is given to those who have been appointed to a magistracy (Gen. 41:43; 1 Sam. 24:12; Ezra 1:5), as well as to “masters” or “lords” (2 Kings 5:13; Judith 6:[13]). Therefore the commandment to honor parents includes magistrates and masters. In turn, we are ordered to honor not only parents but also our magistrates, masters, elders, etc. (Lev. 19:32; Prov. 24:21; Ecclus. 33:25). From this it again follows that the commandment to honor parents includes magistrates and masters. The offices of husband and wife are related to the Sixth Commandment [Exod. 20:14]. In fact, since in that commandment a violation of marriage is forbidden by God, there is no doubt that the command is being made, on the basis of the antithesis, that the order instituted by His will be preserved in conjugal cohabitation. Briefly, it is impossible to cite any portion of the duty of magistrates and subjects, masters and servants, husbands and wives whose foundations cannot be shown clearly in the Old Testament.