Early Christian Views on Parents and Parenting
Early Christians taught children to honor and obey their parents, and they taught parents to guide children with firm, godly care. Ignatius, Theophilus, Clement, Origen, and the Apostolic Constitutions all repeat this pattern, alongside passages like Exodus 20:12 and Ephesians 6:1-4. The main focus is respect, obedience, and faithful training at home. A few texts also stress discipline, family duty, and the duty to avoid harshness.
146 early-church witnesses · 232 source quotations · compared with Scripture
What did early Christians believe about parents and Parenting?
Early Christian writings teach that children should honor and obey their parents, and that parents should raise their children in the Lord. Ignatius, Theophilus of Antioch, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and the Apostolic Constitutions all repeat this pattern, and the Bible passages most often cited are Exodus 20:12, Ephesians 6:1-4, Colossians 3:20, and Matthew 15:4. The teaching is broad and stable across the early centuries:
children owe respect and obedience, fathers should not provoke children, and parents should give firm, godly training. Some texts go further by praising discipline or linking honor for earthly parents with honor for God, while a few passages about family conflict or false family claims are only background or indirect. Overall, the evidence is strong for a clear early Christian ethic of honoring parents and responsible parenting.
Many more early Christian quotations, Bible passages, and source links are gathered below so you can study the evidence for yourself.
Key Takeaways
- Children were expected to obey and honor their parents.
- Parents were told to raise children in the Lord, not in anger.
- Early Christian writers tied family duty to God’s commands.
- Some texts also support firm correction and discipline.
Questions Answered by the Sources
Did early Christians teach children to obey and honor their parents?
Early Christian writers repeatedly teach children to honor, reverence, and obey their parents. They also cite the biblical command as a moral rule for Christian life.
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Ignatius, Epistles of Ignatius Direct teaching
Husbands, love your wives; and wives, your husbands. Children, respect your parents. Parents, raise your children with the nurture and instruction of the Lord. Honor those who remain in virginity, as the priestesses of Christ; and the widows who maintain seriousness in behavior, as the altar of God. Servants, serve your masters with respectful fear. Masters, give orders to your servants with kindness. Let no one among you be idle; for idleness leads to need. I do not command these things as a person of any importance, though I am in bonds for Christ; but as a brother, I remind you of them. The Lord be with you!
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Theophilus of Antioch, To Autolycus Direct teaching
...ile longer. For this is holy, not only with God but also among men: that children should obey their parents with simplicity and without deceit. But if it is right for children to be subject to their parents, how much more should they be subject to the God and Father of all things? Besides, it is not fitting for children in infancy to be wise beyond their years. For just as a person grows in height by an orderly process, so also he grows in wisdom. And when a law commands a person to keep away from something, and he does not obey, clearly it is not the law that causes punishment, but the disobedience and transgression. For a father sometimes orders his own child to keep away from certain things, and when the child does not obey his father's command, he is beaten and punished because of the disobedience. In that case, the things themselves are not the cause of the blows, but the disobedience brings punishment on the one who disobeys. In the same way, for the first man, disobedience brought about his expulsion from Paradise. Therefore, it was not as if there were any evil in the tree of knowledge. Rather, from his disobedience man drew, as from a fountain, labor, pain, grief, and a
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Theophilus of Antioch, To Autolycus Direct teaching
For this is holy, not only with God, but also with men, that in simplicity and guilelessness subjection be yielded to parents.
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Ignatius, Epistles of Ignatius Supporting witness
Ye children, “honour your parents, that it may be well with you.”
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness
Honour your parents, as the authors of your being.
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Colossians 3:20 Direct teaching
Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.
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Exodus 20:12 Supporting witness
Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
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Ephesians 6:2 Supporting witness
Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise;
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Matthew 15:4 Supporting witness
For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’
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Mark 7:10 Supporting witness
For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’
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Ephesians 6:1 Supporting witness
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
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Deuteronomy 5:16 Supporting witness
Honour thy father and thy mother, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee; that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
More related quotations from this section 2 shown
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Tertullian, Against Marcion Supporting witness
he was bound rather to annihilate Him. Children should obey their parents.
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Leviticus 19:3 Supporting witness
Let every one of you reverence his father and his mother; and ye shall keep my Sabbaths: I am the Lord your God.
Did early Christians teach parents to raise and instruct their children?
The sources say parents should provide holy training, nurture, instruction, and firm correction for their children. Several texts connect this duty to teaching wisdom and preventing idleness or disorder.
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Ignatius, Epistles of Ignatius Direct teaching
...ir husbands as their only partners, to whom they have been united according to the will of God. You parents, provide a holy training to your children. You children, "honor your parents, that it may be well with you."
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Ignatius, Epistles of Ignatius Supporting witness
Ye children, reverence your parents. Ye parents, “bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” Honour those [who continue] in virginity, as the priestesses of Christ;
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Dionysius of Alexandria, Miscellaneous Fragments Background
and I said that parents are absolutely distinguished from their children by the fact alone that they themselves are not their children, or that it would assuredly be a matter of necessity that there would neither be parents nor children.
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Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) Supporting witness
Children, be obedient to your parents. Parents, provoke not your children to wrath;
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Tertullian, Against Marcion Supporting witness
Exodus 20:12 Again, (the apostle writes:) Parents, bring up your children in the fear and admonition of the Lord.
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Ignatius, Epistles of Ignatius Supporting witness
Ye parents, impart a holy training to your children.
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Ephesians 6:4 Direct teaching
And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
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Proverbs 1:8 Supporting witness
Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching,
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1 Timothy 3:4 Supporting witness
one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence
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Wisdom of Sirach 30:13 Supporting witness
Train up thy son, and exercise him with work, Lest by thy looseness thou stumble.
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Daniel 1:8 Supporting witness
Hear, my son, the instruction of thy father, And reject not the rules of thy mother.
Did early Christians say grown children should care for their parents?
Some sources go beyond simple obedience and speak of repaying parents, sharing necessities, and honoring them in word and deed. The Bible passages also frame this as part of piety and acceptable conduct before God.
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Direct teaching
...the word, so that they do not become wasteful through idleness, go on without punishment from their parents, get freedom before their time, and stray from what is good. Therefore, do not be afraid to correct them and to teach them wisdom with firmness. For your correction will not kill them, but will rather preserve them. For Solomon says somewhere in the book of Wisdom, “Correct your son, and he will give you rest; so you will have good hope for him.” “You shall indeed strike him with the rod, and shall deliver his soul from death.” And again the same Solomon says, “He who spares his rod hates his son”; and afterward, “Strike his sides while he is an infant, lest he become stubborn and disobey you.” Therefore, he who neglects to admonish and instruct his own son hates his own child. You should therefore teach your children the word of the Lord. Bring them into subjection with sharp stripes, and make them obedient from infancy, teaching them the Holy Scriptures, which are Christian and divine, and handing on to them every sacred writing. Do not give them such freedom that they gain the upper hand and act against your judgment. Do not allow them to join with their equals for feas
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Direct teaching
For if the divine word says about our parents according to the flesh, "Honor your father and your mother, that it may be well with you," Exodus 20:12, and, "He who curses his father or his mother, let him surely die," Exodus 21:17, how much more should this word urge you to honor your spiritual parents and to love them as your benefactors and ambassadors with God? They have regenerated you by water and filled you with the fullness of the Holy Spirit. They have fed you with the word as with milk. They have nourished you with doctrine. They have strengthened you by their warnings. They have given you the saving body and precious blood of Christ. They have released you from your sins. They have made you partakers of the holy and sacred Eucharist. They have admitted you to be partakers and fellow heirs of the promise of God. Reverence them, and honor them with every kind of honor. For they have received from God the power of life and death in judging sinners and condemning them to the death of eternal fire, and also in releasing repentant sinners from their sins and restoring them to a new life.
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Origen, Commentary on Matthew Supporting witness
Of this honour to parents one part was to share with them the necessaries of life, such as food and clothing, and if there was any other thing in which it was possible for them to show favour towards their own parents.
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Origen, Commentary on Matthew Supporting witness
And God said, Honour your father and your mother, Exodus 20:12 teaching that the child should pay the honour which is due to his parents.
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Origen, Commentary on Matthew Supporting witness
...o of God's most urgent commandments. One of them was the fifth in the Ten Commandments: "Honor your father and your mother, that it may be well with you, and that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you," Exodus 20:12. The other was written in Leviticus: "If a man speaks evil of his father or his mother, let him surely die; he has spoken evil of his father or mother; he shall be guilty," Leviticus 20:9. But if we want to examine the exact wording as given by Matthew, "He that speaks evil of father or mother, let him die the death," Matthew 15:4, consider whether it was taken from the place where it was written, "Whoever strikes his father or mother, let him die the death; and he that speaks evil of father or mother, let him die the death." For these are the exact words taken from the Law concerning the two commandments. But Matthew quoted them partly and in shortened form, and not in the exact words. But we must consider the nature of the charge that the Savior brings against the Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem when He says that they transgress the commandment of God because of their tradition. And God said, "Honor your father and your mother," E
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1 Timothy 5:4 Direct teaching
But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show piety at home and to repay their parents; for this is good and acceptable before God.
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Hebrews 12:9 Supporting witness
Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?
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Wisdom of Sirach 3:8 Supporting witness
Honor thy father and mother both in word and deed, That a blessing may come upon thee from them.
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Wisdom of Sirach 3:6 Supporting witness
He that honoreth his father shall have a long life; And he that is obedient unto the Lord shall be a comfort to his mother,
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Wisdom of Sirach 3:16 Supporting witness
He that forsaketh his father is as a blasphemer; And he that angereth his mother is cursed of God.
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Wisdom of Sirach 3:2 Supporting witness
For the Lord hath given the father honor over the children, And hath confirmed the authority of the mother over the sons.
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Leviticus 20:9 Supporting witness
Every man who shall speak evil of his father or of his mother, let him die the death; has he spoken evil of his father or his mother? he shall be guilty.
More related quotations from this section 4 shown
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Exodus 21:15 Supporting witness
Whoever smites his father or his mother, let him be certainly put to death.
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Wisdom of Sirach 3:3 Supporting witness
Whoso honoreth his father maketh an atonement for his sins:
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Wisdom of Sirach 3:4 Supporting witness
And he that honoreth his mother is as one that layeth up treasure.
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Exodus 21:16 Supporting witness
He that reviles his father or his mother shall surely die.
Common Questions
What did early Christians teach children about parents?
They taught children to honor, respect, and obey their parents, often citing Exodus 20:12 and Ephesians 6:1-3.
What did early Christians say parents should do?
They said parents should raise children with godly teaching and not provoke them to anger.
Did early Christians think parenting mattered in church life?
Yes. They treated home teaching and family obedience as part of faithful Christian living.
Source Index for Parents and Parenting
The guided sections above show the strongest quotations. This compact index highlights 160 ranked source links from 232 compiled sources for deeper study.
Source index 160 ranked links shown
Early Christian Writings 80 shown of 146
Primary-source quotations from early Christian writers and church documents.
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Unknown, Unknown Work
Bible Passages 80 shown of 86
Related Bible passages saved for comparison with the early Christian quotations.
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Book 79 1:3
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Book 79 1:30