The Child-Parent Relationship in the New Testament and its Environments

Within the New Testament, tensions have been traced with regard to the expectation that parents should be revered. There is an alleged difference between reverence towards parents among the first followers of Christ and in the settled congregations. For example, the Household Codes in the epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians, where children are addressed together with their fathers, do not mention the possibility of a justified breach between children and their parents. In contrast, there are passages in the Gospels that narrate that the first disciples of Jesus left their family homes when they followed their master. Peter Balla shows that there is no real conflict, and that Jesus' views correspond to non-biblical family ethics where, too, God takes precedence over parents. Jesus and his disciples adhered to the Fifth Commandment.