One of the most prominent features of Jesus of Nazareth’s (c. 6–4 BCE—c. 30 CE) teaching in the gospels is found in his repeated references to God as “Father” (Poirer 2008, 822).

This was not a unique invention of Jesus’, and he did not pioneer this point of view. As Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen explains in The Doctrine of God, “nowhere does the New Testament begin from scratch or reinvent the view of God” (2004, 37).

The Old Testament was already aware of God’s paternal standing and nature (Deut 32:6; Ps. 103:13; Prov. 3:12; Jer. 3:19; Hos. 11). Verses such as Psalms 2:7 do not contain the term for “Father” but represent a particularly important use of the divine fatherhood motif. It is used in a way that appears messianic: “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.” The uniqueness of Jesus’ use of the term lies in the degree of emphasis found nowhere in the Old Testament. 

Jesus’ messianic aspect became very clear. Development in scholarship over the twentieth and twenty-first centuries found Jesus’ messianic consciousness to be much more credible on historical grounds (Poirer 2008, 823). Most scholars today believe that many of the quotations attributed to him were probably his.

At the same time, historians recognized a development in the regularity of the fatherhood terminology. Mark contains only four references to God as “Father,” while Matthew has thirty and John has more than 120, which indicates that there are different meanings in the way Jesus used the “Father” dimension in his teachings. It is also almost certain that Jesus himself used this same language, but in a much more restrained manner than either Matthew or John would have us think. 

Jesus references to God as “Father” cannot therefore be reduced to a single field of meaning. “When Jesus used “Father” in a broader sense, he used it only in reference to God’s fatherhood of his people, defined more narrowly by Jesus in terms of those who obey him” (Poirer 2008, 823). The fatherhood of God also conveys Jesus’ messianic sonship and self-awareness, while elsewhere it conveys God’s relation to Israel. 

Jesus’ teaching on the divine fatherhood is evident in his reference to God as “Abba,” a name that modern writers sometimes wrongly equate with “Daddy” (Poirer 2008, 825). As a term of endearment, it was used by adults as much as by children. The theologian Joachim Jeremias argued in The Central Message of the New Testament (1965) that it “would have been irreverent and therefore unthinkable” to address God as “Abba,” although others have pointed to how little the historian really knows of the prayer habits of Jewish charismatic figures.

Jesus’ references to God as “my Father” share similarities with the personal, familial address of God found among a select group of Jewish wonder workers (Poirer 2008, 824–825). The earliest of these figures, Honi the Circle-Drawer (first century CE), framed his prayers as if he were “a member of [God’s] household.” Later Rabbis compared his prayer technique and his ability to receive what he asked for with the hubris and position of a spoiled son. The rabbinic tradition also recognized that the wonder worker Hanina b. Dosa (first century CE) was addressed by a heavenly voice as “my son.” It remains, however, that Jesus’ self-aware relationship with the Father was higher than that of Honi or Hanina.

References

Joachim, Jeremias. 1965. The Central Message of the New Testament. London: SCM Press.

Kärkkäinen, Veli-Matti. 2004. The Doctrine of God: A Global Introduction. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.

Poirer, John C. 2008. “God.” In The Routledge Encyclopedia of the Historical Jesus, edited by Craig A. Evans, 813-832 (Apple Books). Routledge.