deb1:
I don’t think that the apostles thought Jesus was just saying something that applied only to their own time. Instead they understood that Jesus occasionally used hyperbole to make a point.
You need to read the entire chapter of Mathew 23 in order to understand it. Then it becomes clear that Jesus is discussing the leaders’ hypocrisy. Apparently the Jewish leaders were putting rules on their followers that they themselves didn’t always practice.
If we took Jesus literally, then their are many terms that we could no longer use. For example the hebrew word for Father can translate into…Daddy, dad, pappa, pop. Another word for Rabbi is teacher, or professor.
My reason for saying that it only applied to his time among them was the context. As you note, the comment occurs amidst a censure of the religious leaders. Jesus instructs his disciples not to use the terms “rabbi”, “father” or “teacher”. It is therefore reasonable to assume that the intended meaning of “father” is the one which is related to the two terms by which it is bracketed: not a parent, but a
mentor.
That this term is later used in this way by some of the people thus instructed suggests that
either they fell quickly into disobedience,
or they believed that the meaning of the instruction was somehow limited. Were we to say that the usage of the term is limited by being purely hyperbolic, we would risk effectively
dismissing Jesus’ comment without further consideration, and thus missing any greater depth that it may hold. However, should we work from the premise that the limitation was temporal, we then find certain interesting results.
Jesus forbids his disciples to call anyone but God by the title of “father”. In so doing, he excludes
himself from being called father: the Son demonstrates his subordination to the Father.
Jesus forbids his disciples to call anyone but him by the title of “rabbi” or “teacher”. * Thus, Jesus is forbidding his disciples to
follow anyone else. He probably felt that this was necessary because it was quite common at the time for disciples to leave one teacher in order to follow another, as we see with a couple of John the Baptist’s disciples:
The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”
When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”
They said, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” (John 1:35-8)
Thus, I think that the intention of this comment is not to forbid people from using “father” for their own parents, because the context says nothing about parents and a great deal about religious leaders. Instead, I would contend that the comment was meant to prevent the disciples from wandering to another source of teaching, who might mislead them.
After Jesus’ return to Heaven, the disciples would
have to take up the role of teachers and guides, or spiritual “fathers” to the flock, but they would also have to emulate Jesus’ example in placing themselves firmly below both their Teacher and their Father in Heaven.
Having now looked at the “Ask the Apologist” forum, I can now say that it
was better to post here (omnia Deus uult). In that forum, the apologists
pronounce; they do not
discuss. Had I gone there, I would not have been led to the hypotheses which I now maintain.*