Abba not Father....

I have heard that in the NT if you look closely at the translations right back to the original that at the times where Jesus is refering to his and our "Father" (God) he actually uses the word for Abba instead. Abba loosely translates as Daddy or Dada and would be a word a young jewish child used to greet their Daddy and jump on his knee.

Brennan Manning speculates that the translators and recorders of Jesus's words found the term Abba too threatening and irreverent to use that often. For Jesus to imply that we are to think of God as Abba is to imply a relationship of such familiarity and childllike intimacy was too much for us. God as Father is far more serious and respectful. God as Abba implies God is our Daddy and he wants us to jump up on to his knee and play with his beard.

What a thought. For Islam this would be blasphemous ! Maybe for the Christian church too? But is this not our deepest yearning - to be loved with such warmth by an Abba? Has something incredibly subtle and importnat been lost in the NT. Did Jesus invite us to call God Daddy and did we find the idea far too threatening that we turned God back into the stern distant "father". ? Was Jesus's message too radical for them (and us still)?

i prefered fenando to dancing queen

Originally posted by knightmeister
I have heard that in the NT if you look closely at the translations right back to the original that at the times where Jesus is refering to his and our "Father" (God) he actually uses the word for Abba instead. Abba loosely translates as Daddy or Dada and would be a word a young jewish child used to greet their Daddy and jump on his knee.

Brennan M ...[text shortened]... nto the stern distant "father". ? Was Jesus's message too radical for them (and us still)?

Originally posted by stoker
i prefered fenando to dancing queen

Originally posted by knightmeister
I have heard that in the NT if you look closely at the translations right back to the original that at the times where Jesus is refering to his and our "Father" (God) he actually uses the word for Abba instead. Abba loosely translates as Daddy or Dada and would be a word a young jewish child used to greet their Daddy and jump on his knee.

Brennan M ...[text shortened]... nto the stern distant "father". ? Was Jesus's message too radical for them (and us still)?

Originally posted by ivanhoe
There is nothing threatening about it. Nothing has been lost either. A Roman Catholic can adress God as Abba whenever he feels like it and whenever he feels it is appropiate.

Originally posted by knightmeister
My experience is that many of us (me included) struggle to really live and feel this. Of course it's threatening . It threatens our fear , our rigidness, our seriousness. Intimacy and love is always threatening to us if it wasn't God's love would be easy to receive. His love exposes our shame and seeks to melt it.

Originally posted by ivanhoe
Roman Catholics have a sacrament called, the "Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation". It helps solving the problems you speak of.


Paragraphs 1420-1498 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church explain the Sacrament of Reconciliation and Penance in detail:

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P45.HTM


How to Receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation:

http://www.carr.org/~meripper/faith/reconcil.htm

Originally posted by knightmeister
Roman Catholics have a sacrament called, the "Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation". It helps solving the problems you speak of. IVAN

It's not a problem to be "solved". Jesus meets us in our shame and brokeness and fear. He doesn't offer us an escape , he meets us as we are and not as we should be.

Originally posted by ivanhoe
Roman Catholics have a sacrament called, the "Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation". It helps solving the problems you speak of.

Originally posted by epiphinehas
In Romans 8, Paul makes it clear that the revelation of God as Abba is what being a Christian is all about. If that heart relationship is not there, wherein one knows God as "Daddy" and thinks fondly of Him as such, then one should question whether they are indeed living by the faith of Jesus Christ or not.

"For if you live according to the flesh you ...[text shortened]... pirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God" (Romans 8:13-16).

Originally posted by t0lkien
And yet there are only two "sacraments" given in the NT - baptism, and communion.

Sorry, couldn't resist 😉

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Has something incredibly subtle and importnat been lost in the NT.
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Epiphinehas, has done an excellent job to show that the answer is NO. Something has NOT been lost in the New Testament.

In the worship of many Christians perhaps, this intimate experience of calling God our Daddy - Abba, may be lacking. But that is not the fault of the New Testament as proved by Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:6

But we do not have to lack that personal touch. You and I can call God Abba Father as much and as ofthen as we wish.

I call Abba Father quite often. And each Lord's Table meeting our congregation resonates with prayers, praises, and songs of Abba Father, Abba Father. It is not hard when it is so Real to us that God is indeed our own dear Daddy, our Abba Father.

He loves for us to believe in His Son. And He loves to the uttermost that we would call and address Him as our dear Abba Father.

You will feel so sweet within when you draw near to God the Father through Jesus Christ, crying "Abba, Abba Father. My own dear Father. My own dear Abba, I love you."

Originally posted by knightmeister
Was Jesus's message too radical for them (and us still)?

Originally posted by twhitehead
What I have never understood is how you reconcile the claim that Jesus was Gods [b]only son but God is every bodies father. Can you call Jesus brother? (Or 'my bru' as it would be in Cape Town)
I always got the impression that Jesus referred to God as his and everybody else's father and did not make it personal. The lords prayer starts with "Our father". (Though of course that should now be "Daddy" or "Yo, Pops"😉.[/b]