What are the origins of referring to priests as "Father"?

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Someone asked me this the other day and it sort of stumped me. I mean, I’m used the question as to why it’s okay and even appropriate to call priests “Father”, and also why it does not contradict the verse in the Gospels where Jesus says “Call no man Father.” That’s a very common and standard apologetics question.

But when did the practice begin and why? Does anyone know any good articles on that question? I tried searching but everything I have come across just answers the common apologetics question to show it’s not anti-scriptural.
 
One reason they are called Father is that they beget spiritual children in Christ through baptism. The Divine command to increase and multiply can be satisfied both carnally and spiritually.
 
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Holy Bible (Douay Rheims)
1 Jn 2:13 • ‘I write unto you, fathers, because you have known him, who is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one.’
1 Cor 4:15 • ‘For if you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet not many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, by the gospel, I have begotten you.’
 
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I don’t think there’s any singular reason, as most customary terms of endearment/respect/authority tend to be very muddy in terms of their origin.

I suspect that it might just be very prosaic: “father” whether in Aramaic, Latin or Greek were very commonly used outside of a strict biological sense to indicate respect, authority or (sometimes) divinity/holiness.

I also suspect that “father” as applied to priests entered custom somewhat late: perhaps end of the first millennium? I can’t recall it being a term that was in common currency in early Christian literature, which tended to use very specifically Christian terms: Irenaeus and Polykarp used variants of “fellow aliens and exiles” (οἱ πάρακοι καὶ παρεπίδημοι ἡμῶν, hoi parakoi kai parepidemoi hemon).
 
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The current usage of the term “Father” for priests appears to stem from the practice in the Middle Ages of calling mendicant friars “Father” because they were actually out caring for people. This is discussed in several sources including this blog from Fr William Saunders.


Before that the term seems to have been reserved for bishops, Popes and abbots.
 
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Our Lord said “Call no man your father.” Saint Paul considered himself to be the father of both Timothy and Titus, and most certainly of others.

 
The following quote was with regard to “call no man father”.
“it is a difficulty that the Apostle against this command calls himself the teacher of the Gentiles; and that in monasteries in their common conversation, they call one another Father. It is to be cleared thus. It is one thing to be a father or master by nature, another by sufferance. Thus we call any man father, we do it to show respect to his age, not as regarding him the author of our being.”
- St. Jerome (A.D. 347-420)
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If it was so late, then I wonder why the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches also call their priests Father? We’ve been separated from the former for a thousand years and from the latter for 1500 years. In the East it seems to be universal… priests, deacons, and even non-ordained monks are all “Father”… and priest’s wives and nuns are both “Mother”.
 
We do have “Mother” in the West, but only for the head of a convent or religious order, as in Mother Superior, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton, Mother Katherine Drexel, etc.
 
Joe_5859 said:
why it does not contradict the verse in the Gospels where Jesus says “Call no man Father.”
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Jesus said that during His mission on earth. The Church’s birthday is Pentecost. At the time He spoke, there was no Church.

Now did Jesus mean, “God is more truly your father than the man who sired you?”

Or did he mean, “In this church I’m gonna start, but haven’t yet, don’t be callin’ the priests ‘father’?”
 
Oh! “Mother” is perfectly OK. It’s just that with bible Christians and other literalists, it’s the “F” word they have trouble with…

…that would be Father. 🤨
 
Joe_5859 said:
What are the origins of referring to priests as “Father”?..
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In my opinion, it is an ancient practice which began in Old Testament times. It is derived from the fact that, in the beginning, during the time of the priesthood of Melchizedek, God blessed the Israelites through the ancient Fathers:

Genesis 48:15And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day,

Acts 3:25Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers,

Then, when God established the levitical priesthood, only the men of the house were priests. Not the women. This priesthood was passed down from Aaron through his sons. Thus, fatherhood and priesthood became cemented as one profession in the Hebrew mind.

Judges 17:10 And Micah said unto him, Dwell with me, and be unto me a father and a priest, and I will give thee ten shekels of silver by the year, and a suit of apparel, and thy victuals. So the Levite went in.

So, in the New Testament, when Jesus Christ appointed His priesthood, it was natural for those men, who were initially all of Hebrew stock, to consider themselves “fathers”.

1 John 2:1My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

1 Corinthians 4:15For though ye have ten thousand instructers in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.

Just my two cents.
 
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It comes from the Bible. Jesus prayed: ‘Abba , Father , all things are possible to you; remove this cup from me. Yet not what I want, but what you want’. One of my favorite saints, St Anthony of the Desert, was already called ‘Abba’, and that is 3rd century.
 
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Dan_Defender said:
It comes from the Bible. Jesus prayed: ‘Abba , Father , all things are possible to you; remove this cup from me. Yet not what I want, but what you want’. One of my favorite saints, St Anthony of the Desert, was already called ‘Abba’, and that is 3rd century.
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Great point! That is also where the title Abbot is derived from.
 
Its funny that we address Abbots as “Father Abbot”… Father Father?
 
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