Is God called Abba/Father in OT?

[Just_Ed]

Question: Was God was ever referred to as Father (Abba) in the Old Testament, or did that begin with Jesus? What about addressing Him as “Our Father?”

This question occurred to me this morning as I was reading today’s Gospel text (Jn 5:1-16). Verses 15 and 16 read:

“‘My Father is working still, and I am working.’ This is why the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he . . . called God his Father, making him equal with God.” (RSV/CE)

Thanks for any insight you can provide.

 

[Spencerian]

Question: Was God was ever referred to as Father (Abba) in the Old Testament, or did that begin with Jesus? What about addressing Him as “Our Father?”

This question occurred to me this morning as I was reading today’s Gospel text (Jn 5:1-16). Verses 15 and 16 read:

“‘My Father is working still, and I am working.’ This is why the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he . . . called God his Father, making him equal with God.” (RSV/CE)

Thanks for any insight you can provide.

Hi.

I believe that God had not revealed more of His triune nature beyond that hinted in Genesis 1 (“Let *us *make man in *our *image…”) in the Old Testament.

God was often called “The Lord of Hosts” or “Yahweh” (anglicized/Latinized Hebrew).

 

[Ron_Conte]

[Isaiah]
{63:16} For you are our Father, and Abraham has not known us, and Israel has been ignorant of us. You are our Father, O Lord our Redeemer. Your name is beyond all ages.

 

[NotWorthy]

He was called “our Father” in the 3rd person sense, most commonly, as Ron pointed out in Isaiah. I believe a psalm also addresses him this way.

But I don’t think God is called Father in the 1st person during any time in the Old Testament.

 

[patrick457]

As Ron pointed out, Isaiah (speaking for Israel) already calls God 'avinu “our Father”; David, or its king also calls God 'avi “my Father” in Psalm 89:26. However, in these passages, as well as in most instances in Jewish literature where God is called such, the Fatherhood of God is seen in a more general, corporate way: He is seen more as the Father of Israel as a whole rather than the Father of an individual. Of course, this is not unique to the Israelites: other Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean cultures also had the notion of the deity as a merciful parent. In Palestinian Jewish literature, we have no instances of God being addressed as ‘Father’ in prayer, but we do have some Hellenistic Jewish works which does so (incidentally, calling God ‘Father’ was more frequent in those circles).

Now, for an individual Jew to address God as ‘Father’ as frequent as Jesus does, is actually rare - it is even thought that this form of address ('abba) is highly distinctive with, or even unique to, Him.

 

[Joe_Kelley]

I think Abba is an informal/familiar term of address, like Daddy. Any OT references would use a very formal form.

 

[patrick457]

I think Abba is an informal/familiar term of address, like Daddy. Any OT references would use a very formal form.

There was once this view (popularized by German scholar Joachim Jeremias) that 'abba had its origins in baby-talk or child’s speech. However, the title is not just apparently used by children around the time of Jesus: in texts where 'abba occurs, it appears as the address of an adult to his or her father. It probably did belong to the familiar or colloquial register of the language in Jesus’ time, but people of all ages would have still used 'abba; and the word itself eventually became a courtesy title for respected men.

So to speak, 'abba does seem to have had some familiarity and intimacy attached to it - as well as an element of feeling - but contrary to the common homiletical assertion, 'abba being compared wholesale to ‘daddy’, which sounds too childish and too informal (as well as ‘father’, which is too formal), is quite misleading, as the word also carries a sense of reverence, respect and awe with it: true intimacy does not eliminate a sense of sacred awe and ‘otherness’, nor does it equate with getting all informal and feel-good to the point that we are not giving God proper respect that He is due.
After all, Jesus taught us to pray, “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.” We don’t just stop at 'Abun (‘our Father’), but we go on and bless God’s name.

Now Jeremias is not to blame here, however. he just happened to publish his research at the 60’s, when anti-hierarchical sentiments began to spread wide and many people wanted to get in cozy informal terms with each other. While Jeremias did argue for childlike spontaneity conveyed by 'abba, he was not the one who made the ‘abba=daddy’ connection: he simply used the term lieber Vater (‘dear Father’). Others would build up from where he left. Now of course, this did not stop many folk from jumping onto the wagon: they now have an excuse (?) to get all informal and get all cuddly and feel-good with God, with scholarly backing no less!

 

[Just_Ed]

Thanks to everyone! Very interesting responses.

 

[PJM]

":

Just_Ed, post:1, topic:190857"]
Question: Was God was ever referred to as Father (Abba) in the Old Testament, or did that begin with Jesus? What about addressing Him as “Our Father?”

This question occurred to me this morning as I was reading today’s Gospel text (Jn 5:1-16). Verses 15 and 16 read:

“‘My Father is working still, and I am working.’ This is why the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he . . . called God his Father, making him equal with God.” (RSV/CE)

Thanks for any insight you can provide.

“Abba” does not seem to appear in th OT at all.

**The term father appears nearly 1,400 times **BUT ONLY in 9 verses does it apply to “God The Father,” and four of them are in the Book of Isaiah. , and Only twice does God express Himself as “Father.”

**Deut.32: 6 “Do you thus requite the LORD, you foolish and senseless people? Is not he your father, who created you, who made you and established you”

1Chr.22: 10 “He shall build a house for my name. He shall be my son, and I will be his father, and I will establish his royal throne in Israel for ever.’ “

Prov.6: 20 “My son, keep your father’s commandment, and forsake not your mother’s teaching.”

Isa.9: 6 “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

Isa.22: 21 “and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your girdle on him, and will commit your authority to his hand; and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 23 And I will fasten him like a peg in a sure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father’s house. 24 And they will hang on him the whole weight of his father’s house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the

Isa.63: 16 “For thou art our Father, though Abraham does not know us and Israel does not acknowledge us; thou, O LORD, art our Father, our Redeemer from of old is thy name.”

Isa.64: 8 “Yet, O LORD, thou art our Father; we are the clay, and thou art our potter; we are all the work of thy hand.”

Jer.3: 19 "`I thought how I would set you among my sons, and give you a pleasant land, a heritage most beauteous of all nations. And I thought you would call me, My Father,
and would not turn from following me.”

Jer.31:9 With weeping they shall come, and with consolations I will lead them back, I will make them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble; for I am a father to Israel, and E’phraim is my first-born.”
**

***In conclusion, it seems that God always thought of Himself as Father, BUT that there was such reverence for the name of God; [Yahweh] that the people themselves were not permitted to utter it; thus making it unlikely that they saw the relationship with God as “family,” rather they saw and feared God as an AWESOME LORD. ***

God Bless,
Pat

 

[budgie2]

Question: Was God was ever referred to as Father (Abba) in the Old Testament, or did that begin with Jesus? What about addressing Him as “Our Father?”

This question occurred to me this morning as I was reading today’s Gospel text (Jn 5:1-16). Verses 15 and 16 read:

“‘My Father is working still, and I am working.’ This is why the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he . . . called God his Father, making him equal with God.” (RSV/CE)

Thanks for any insight you can provide.

According to this website it appears only in the New Testament
learnthebible.org/abba.html

Interestingly Aramaic is related to Persian languages and the Asian language Urdu. In Urdu and some Asian languages children call their father Abba which reminds me that God is the Father of all mankind as I live near to a Muslim area. I think Urdu also uses similar script to the Aramaic alphabet and Aramaic is related to a lot of Muslim languages nowadays.