International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: Father

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | Download

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: Father


Subjects in this Topic:

fa´thẽr (Anglo-Saxon, Foeder; German, Vater; Hebrew אב, 'ābh, etymology uncertain, found in many cognate languages; Greek πατήρ, patḗr, from root pâ, “nourisher,” “protector,” “upholder”):

1. Immediate Male Ancestor

Immediate male ancestor. The father in the Hebrew family, as in the Roman, had supreme rights over his children, could dispose of his daughter in marriage (Gen 29), arrange his son's marriage (Gen 24), sell his children (), but not his daughter to a stranger (), had power of life and death, as in the case of Isaac (Gen 22), Jephthah's daughter (), the sacrificing of his children to Molech (; -5), etc. Respect, reverence and affection for fathers (and equally for mothers) is most tenderly, explicitly and sternly prescribed from the earliest times (; ; ; ; , etc.). A symmetrical and beautiful picture of the duties and character of the ideal human father may be built up from the Old Testament, with added and enlarged touches from the New Testament. He loves (); commands (; ); instructs (, etc.); guides, encourages, warns (; ); trains (); rebukes (); restrains (Eli, by contrast, ); punishes (); chastens (; ); nourishes (); delights in his son (), and in his son's wisdom (); is deeply pained by his folly (); he is considerate of his children's needs and requests (); considerate of their burdens, or sins (, “As a man spareth his own son”); tenderly familiar (, “with me in bed”); considerately self-restrained (, “Provoke not your children to wrath”); having in view the highest ends (ibid., “Nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord”); pitiful (, “as a father pitieth his children”); the last human friend (but one) to desert the child ( : “When (a thing to the psalmist incredible) my father and my mother forsake me, then Yahweh will take me up”).

2. Ancestors, Immediate or Remote

(a) Ancestor, immediate or remote: , “Abraham thy father” (grandfather); , “Jehoshaphat ... David his father”; , “Jonadab, the son of Rechab, our father”; , “Nebuchadnezzar thy father” (personal or official ancestor); , “Go to thy fathers in peace” (and so (in the plural) in over 500 passages). The expressions “slept with his fathers,” “go down to his fathers,” “buried with his fathers,” “gathered to his fathers,” are self-explanatory euphemisms. (b) The founders of the (Hebrew) race, specifically the patriarchs:' , “whose are the fathers,” considered here also as in a sense the religious ancestors of all believers. (c) Progenitors of clans, i.e. (Revised Version (British and American)) “fathers' houses”: ; , etc. (d) Gods as progenitors of men: , “Who say to a stock, thou art my father.”

3. Figurative and Derived Uses

(a) A spiritual ancestor, one who has infused his own spirit into others, whether good, as Abraham, the father of the faithful, ; or bad, as , “Ye are of your father the devil.” (b) Indicating closest resemblance, kinship, affinity: , “If I have said to corruption, Thou art my father.” (c) A source: , “Father of glory”; , “Hath the rain a father?” (d) Creator: , “the Father of lights.” (e) The inventor or originator of an art or mode of life: , “father of such as dwell in tents” (a hint here of hereditary occupations? Probably not). (f) One who exhibits the fatherly characteristics: , “a father of the fatherless.” (g) One who occupies a position of counsel, care, or control (frequently applied by sultans to their prime ministers): , “a father to Pharaoh”; , “Be unto me a father and a priest.” (h) A revered or honored superior: , “My father, if the prophet had bid thee”; but especially applied to prophets: , “My father, my father!” also to elderly and venerable men: , “I write unto you, fathers”; hence also, with perhaps an outlook on (2) (a), deceased early Christians: , “from the day that the fathers fell asleep.” An ecclesiastical title, condemned (in principle) by our Lord: , “Call no man your father on the earth”; but applied, under the power of the Spirit, to members of the Sanhedrin (probably) by Stephen: ; and by Paul: , but the latter, perhaps also the former, may simply refer to the elderly among his hearers. Christ's condemnation is clearly of the praise-seeking or obsequious spirit, rather than of a particular custom.

“Father,” used by Mary of Joseph, in relation to Jesus, equals “putative father,” a necessary reserve at a time when the virgin birth could not yet be proclaimed (). But note Jesus' answer: “my Father's house.”