Chapter 238 of 404

“Abba, Father”

While calling God “Father” was not distinctive, Jesus calls God “Father” frequently, and sometimes addresses him as “my Father” (Matt 11:27//Lk 10:22).⁵⁷ He also emphasizes the intimacy of his relationship with his Father (Matt 11:25- 27//Lk 10:21-22), which was not the common use of the image either among his people or among Gentiles. This relationship may be most clearly obvious in the title “Abba” (Mk 14:36).⁵⁸

Vermes views Jesus’ invocation of his “Father” as “Abba” as in line with other charismatic sages, comparing the grandson of the famous “charismatic” sage Honi the Circle-Drawer.⁵⁹ Whereas the German scholar Joachim Jeremias had insisted that Jesus’ use of “Abba” for God was unique,⁶⁰ Vermes notes that Honi’s grandson compares God with an “Abba.”⁶¹ The source for this comparison is much later than Jesus, however,⁶² and is merely a comparison, not a direct address. If Jeremias’ case for uniqueness may be overstated, the address is at least highly distinctive with Jesus. Vermes’ appeal to its “charismatic” character may at least reinforce its implications for Jesus’ intimate dependence on God.

Because Mark is written in Greek, only selectively reproducing Aramaic words of Jesus, we read Jesus’ “Abba” address there only once, in a time of Jesus’ intimate and desperate prayer (Mk 14:36). What suggests to us that this language may have been more generally characteristic of Jesus’ non-public prayer addresses is its wholesale adoption by many of his followers. Although Paul, like Mark, supplies the Greek translation with the title, he uses the expression in two letters to Greek-speaking churches (Rom 8:15; Gal 4:6). In both cases, he seems to assume that most of the church will be familiar with the term; that one of these instances is to a church he has never visited (Rom 8:15) indicates that the usage was widespread in early Christianity.⁶³

In both cases, Paul refers to a mark of the Spirit within Jesus’ followers that gives them intimacy with God. In one case, he describes this relationship as the activity of the Spirit associated with God’s Son Jesus, so that Jesus’ followers are transferred into Jesus’ own intimate relationship with the Father (Gal 4:6).⁶⁴ What is most significant about this claim for our purposes is that Jesus’ movement widely recognized his intimate relationship with the Father.

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