Fourth Commandment

The Fourth Commandment is the injunction to honour one’s father and mother. Its designation as the fourth commandment reflects a particular tradition of dividing and numbering the commandments: the arrangement associated with St Augustine and followed by the Catholic and Lutheran Churches. The difference in numbering makes the rule not only a demand of filial respect but also a point where religious traditions diverge over how the scriptural sequence is organized.

The Commandment and Its Number

The commandment’s wording is “Honour thy father and thy mother.” In Freud’s numbering it is the fourth. The designation is not universal: it depends on which division of the commandments a tradition adopts, rather than on a disagreement over the injunction itself.

Differences Among Church Traditions

The Catholic and Lutheran Churches count the injunction as the fourth commandment, following the division established by St Augustine. The Reformed Churches and the Church of England count it as the fifth. Their order follows the sequence in Exodus 20 rather than the one in Deuteronomy 5. Thus, the same requirement occupies different numbered positions according to the textual ordering each tradition uses.

Significance

The difference is a small but concrete example of how religious classification shapes the presentation of a shared rule. The commandment’s filial obligation remains identifiable across these traditions, while its number changes with the interpretive framework used to arrange the commandments.