Fatherhood and Jeremiah, Etc., Part 2 (from the Intertestamental Period into the New Testament) Wave Nunnally, PhD Evangel University Assemblies of God Theological Seminary Center for Holy Lands Studies
Tertullian De Oratione 2:182.4; 2:5-7 By saying Father, we also give God a name and pass censure on those who have forgotten the Father.
Cyprian On the Lord s Prayer 10:32 This word [ Father ] also censures and lashes the Jews [By their rejection (unbelief) of the Christ, God] has now begun to be ours and has ceased to be the Father of the Jews who have forsaken Him.
Bousset, Ibid., p. 43 What is most completely original and truly creative in the preaching of Jesus comes out most strongly and purely when he proclaims God the heavenly Father..The later Judaism [i.e., that if Jesus time] had neither in name nor in fact the faith of the Father-God; it could not possibly rise to it.
J.I. Packer, Knowing God (1973), pp. 26-27 For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new, and better than the Old, everything that is distinctively Christian as opposed to merely Jewish, is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God. Father is the Christian name of God.. Father has now become his covenant name..christians are His children, His own sons
J. Jeremias, Central Message of NT, p. 14 Like the Old Testament, Palestinian Judaism in the time before Jesus was very reluctant to speak of God as Father. In the whole of the Qumran literature, for instance, which must have been composed before AD 68, there is just one single passage to be found where the name of father is applied to God.
Joachim Jeremias, Prayers of Jesus, p. 29 there is no evidence in the literature of ancient Palestinian Judaism that my Father is used as a personal address to God.
1QH 9:33-36 The abundance of Your forgiveness is with my steps; And infinite mercy accompanies Your judgment of me. Until I am old You will care for me; For my father knew me not And my mother abandoned me to You. For You are a Father to all the sons of truth; And as a nursing mother who tenderly loves her suckling, So do You rejoice in them; And as an adoptive father bearing a child in his lap, So do You provide for all Your creatures.
4Q372 Fragment 1:14-20 And in all this Joseph was given into the hands of foreigners, devouring his strength and breaking his bones until the time of his end. And he cried out and aloud he called to God the Mighty to save him from their hands and he said, My Father and my God [see John 20:17, 28], do not abandon me into the hands of the nations. Do justice for me Your mercies are abundant, your kindnesses great for all who seek you
4Q504 Fragment 2, 3:1-10 Our Father, incline Your ear and consider behold, all the nations are as nothing to You For You named Israel My son, My firstborn and you chastened us like a man chastens his son and You have reared us and sustained us throughout the years of our generations
4Q460 Fragment 5, 1:1-11 for You did not forsake Your servant my Father and my Lord [see Psalm 89:27]
4Q382 Fragment 55, 2:1-9 For You have taken to wife those who take possession of You, and You have become their Father and You have not abandoned them into the hands of Your kings, but rather You Yourself have ruled over Your people Israel Your providential care which You have given to them by the hand of Moses Your judgment and the sin of Your people is accounted upon their heads Your patience and forgiveness
4Q379 Fragment 18, 1:1-7 all who forsake God and by the greatness of Your works from the way, and did not lean upon You and to become/be to him, O our Lord, like a Father O my God, I will be faithful to all Your words
4Q378 Fragment 6, 1:3-8; 2:1 You did resemble, and like a Father to the sons of Israel He will be gracious to me and He will grant me pardon
4Q 369 Fragment 1, 2:1-12 And all Your good commandments You have hailed down upon him in everlasting light. And you appointed him firstborn son for Yourself and You Did give unto him righteous ordinances, like a father gives to a son so let your soul cleave to His love forever
4Q423 Fragment 7, lines 1-7 For like the mercies of a father concerning all His works and His mercies
4Q418 Fragment 86, lines 1-4 for My anger. But like a father toward his daughters
4Q415 Fragment 2, 2:1-9 like a father is His honor [see Mal. 1:6]
Tobit 13:1-7 Make His greatness known there, And exalt Him in the presence of all the living; Because He is our Lord and God, He is our Father forever. He will afflict us for our iniquities, And again He will show mercy, And will gather us from the nations Among whom we have been scattered.
Ben Sira 23:1-3 O Lord, Father and master of my life...who will apply the lash to my thoughts, to my mind the rod of discipline, that my failings may not be spared, nor the sins of my heart overlooked, lest my failings increase, and my sins be multiplied, lest I succumb to my foes and my enemies rejoice over me?
Ben Sira 23:4 O Lord, my Father and God of my life, abandon me not into their control...
Ben Sira 48:10 [Elijah] who are ready at the appointed time, it is written, to calm the wrath of God before it breaks out in fury, to turn the heart of the Father to the son, and to restore the tribes of Jacob. [see Mal. 3:24]
Ben Sira 51:1 I will praise You, O my God, O my Salvation I will give thanks, O my God, O my Father!
Ben Sira 51:8-10 Then I remembered Your mercy, O Lord, and Your works from of old I exalted the Lord, saying, You are my Father, my mighty Savior, only You! Do not leave me in the day of trouble!
Jubilees 1:19-28 And Moses fell on his face and prayed and said, O Lord, my God, do not abandon your people And do not deliver them into the hand of their enemy let Your mercy be lifted up upon your people they are Your people who You saved And the LORD said to Moses, I will be a Father to them, and they will be sons to Me and they will be called sons of the living God. And every angel and spirit will know and acknowledge that they are My sons and I am their Father and I shall love them Everyone will know that I am the God of Israel and the Father of all the children of Jacob
Jubilees 2:20 I [God] have marked him [Isaac] down as my eldest son and consecrated him to Myself.
Jubilees 19:29 [And Abraham said] May the Lord God be a father to you [Jacob] and to the people always, and may you be a firstborn son.
Joseph and Asenath 23:11 Joseph our brother is like the firstborn son of God.
Testament of Levi 17:2 In each jubilee there shall be a priesthood. In the first jubilee the first person to be Anointed to the priesthood will be great, And he shall speak to God as Father.
Testament of Levi 18:1-14 The heavens will be opened And from the temple of glory sanctification will come upon him, with a fatherly voice, as from Abraham to Isaac.
Testament of Abraham 6:6 Our God and Father
Testament of Abraham 20:12 Our God and Father
Josephus Antiquities 5:93 Father and Lord of the Hebrew race
Josephus Antiquities 4:262 God is also distressed at acts of disrespect toward a father, since He is Himself Father of the whole human race and regards Himself as a partner in the indignity done to those who bear the same title as Himself, when they do not obtain from their children that which is their due.
Matthew 5:16 Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.