EXOD417 Honor of parents is honor of God; dishonor or parents is dishonor of God. "Rabbi [Judy HaNasi, 2nd cent.] said: 'Honor of father and mother is dear to him who created the world [God] for he equated honor and reverence for them with honor and reverence for him, and cursing of parents is like cursing him'" (this verse, Mechilta). The exalted status of parents is inherent in their biological kinship to their children. Philo the Alexandrian (1st cent.) expressed this view in the following passage: "Parents are human, they are born and die, but they are also divine because they created life" (On the Ten Commandments). Philo's words are not to be taken literally as an attribution of divinity to the personage of a parent, a belief prevalent in some ancient cults. He is merely stating that parents possess divine qualities. The ability to create life is a divine power which they share with God, the creator of all life. By honoring the divine qualities of parenthood one also honors God, who bestows these powers upon them. By the same token, if one dishonors his parents he also dishonors God. In the words of Ben Sera (2nd century B.C.E.) "He that forsakes his father is a blasphemer" (Ecclus. 3:16). The traditional link between parenthood and God helped create the father-image of God in a spiritual and physical sense. According to tradition, it is God who implants the soul in the body. He is therefore the spiritual father of the human race. Beyond that, it is God's established law of nature which makes it possible for the human embryo to grow and develop. In the words of the Psalmist: "For thou hast made my reigns, thou hast knit me together in my mother's womb" (Psalms 139:13). This concept provided the basis for the Talmudic statement that "there are three partners in the creation of man, God and father and mother" (Kiddushin 30b).