Exclusive Club
Some people imply that addressing God as Father is unique to
Christianity. If they mean to say that the reality of adoption into
the family of God is only delivered by the gospel, then they
are onto something. But if they mean to say no other religion
ever formulated any such concept, they are mistaken.
"PATER. It is often said that the New Testament
introduced a new name of God, namely, Pater (Father). But this is
hardly correct. The name Father is used of the Godhead even in
heathen religions. It is used repeatedly in the Old Testament to
designate the relation of God to Israel, Deut. 32: 6; Ps. 103: 13;
Isa. 63: 16; 64: 8; Jer. 3: 4, 19; 31: 9; Mal. 1: 6; 2: 10, while
Israel is called the son of God, Ex. 4: 22; Deut. 14: 1; 32: 19;
Isa. 1: 2; Jer. 31: 20; Hos. 1: 10; 11: 1."
(Berkhof, Louis. Systematic Theology (Kindle Locations 1026-1030). GLH
Publishing.)
I suspect this theme in preaching goes back to the old
Unitarians, who believed in the Fatherhood of God, the brotherhood
of man, and. . .they used to say, the neighborhood of Boston. What
they were able to swallow from the gospel was the idea of God as
Father. And that is certainly a wonderful Bible theme. But if its
realization in verity is a new thing, the outline of the theme is not.
The synagogue also prays to God as Father: "With great love hast Thou loved us, O Lord our
God, and with much overflowing pity hast Thou pitied us, our Father
and our King." (early form of Second Benediction, quoted in Sketches of Jewish
Social Life in the Days of Christ, Alfred Edersheim, p. 198). "Forgive us, our Father, for we have sinned;
pardon us, our King, for we have transgressed; for You do pardon and
forgive." (Eighteen Benedictions, Benediction 6). As expressed with a
touch of impudence: "The recognition of
this fatherhood is all that God wants from Israel. 'All the wonders
and mighty deeds which I have done for you,' says God unto Israel,
'were not performed with the purpose of being rewarded (by you),
but that you honor me like children, and call me your father.'"
(Quotation from Exodus Midrash Rabba, 325, pp. 50-51, Aspects of Rabbinic Theology,
Solomon Schechter).
The Qumran covenanters do not dissent: "For You are a father to all the children of Your truth, and You
rejoice over them as a loving mother over her nursing child."
(Thanksgiving Scroll, Dead Sea Scrolls, Michael Wise, Martin Abegg,
Jr., and Edward Cook, p.105). It is not the church alone who worship their Father in
heaven: "When Israel went up to Jerusalem to worship their
Father who is in heaven, they sat so close together that no one
could insert a finger between them, yet when they had to kneel and
to prostrate themselves there was room enough for them all to do
so." (Avoth d' Rab. Nathan, chapter 35, quoted in Hebraic
Literature: Translations from the Talmud, Midrashim and Kabbala,
Kindle location 3054). Given the Old Testament texts listed above, there is no reason
to assume this is entirely a late development. Admittedly, no previous teaching rises
to the level of Jesus' revelation of His Father:
"Certainly no parallel to Jesus' presentation of God as
Father has been found in extra-Christian literature. The term
'father' is indeed applied to God here and there in the Old
Testament. But in the Old Testament it is usually in relation to the
people of Israel that God is thought of as Father rather than in
relation to the individual. . .Despite all previous uses of the word
'father' as applied to God, Jesus was ushering in a new era when He
taught His disciples to say, 'Our Father which art in heaven.'" (J.
Gresham Machen, The Origin of Paul's Religion, pp. 132-133).
This Talmudic lament over the temple destroyed in 70 A.D. portrays God as a
father bereft of His children:
“He also said to me, ‘My son, what voice hast thou heard
in that ruin?’ And I said to him, ‘I have heard the “Bath Kol,”
which cooed like a dove, and said, “Woe to the children, because on
account of their sins I have laid waste My House, and I have burned
My Sanctuary, and I have driven them forth among the nations.”’ . .
.What remains to the father who has driven his children into
captivity? and woe to the children who have been driven forth from
the table of their father.’” (Alfred Edersheim, Sketches of Jewish
Social Life in the Days of Christ, extract from Berachoth, p. 129).
Pagan Parallels
Jeremiah knew of pagans who hymned their idols in a similar
vocabulary, "Saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou
hast brought me forth: for they have turned their back unto me, and not
their face: but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and
save us." (Jeremiah 2:27).
It is a commonly heard theme in Christian preaching that praying
to God as "Our Father" is distinctive to Christianity. Why they
think so is uncertain, given that the pagans often addressed their
gods with this title. To be sure, paganism could never deliver on
the reality of divine sonship. In paganism, intimations of true
deity were intermingled with bizarre illusions, so that the pagans
never truly became sons of the non-entities they adored, nor would
they have been better off if they had been. But the title is there. To bring in a less-than-reputable parallel, the Greek pagans prayed to Zeus as "Our Father:"
"Then bright Odysseus was to gladness stirred,
And prayed aloud, and spoke, and said a word:
'O Zeus Our Father, may Alcinous now
Fulfill the promise I this night have heard!'" (Homer,
The Odyssey, translated by J. W. MacKail, Book Seventh, Volume 1,
Books I-VIII, p. 190).
Zeus, in his fullest description, is a pagan non-entity no doubt, but Homer imagined him
to be the 'father of gods and men.' Some of the pagan theologians
explain this title by ascribing creation to Zeus, although that is not
necessarily his role in the early myths. Everyone knows the strange
narrative of Zeus' conception and birth; how could someone who only
came along when the world system was well-established, albeit under
different management, be the Creator? According to Aristotle, whose
embrace by later Christian theologians sits oddly with the fact that
he did not believe in a creator god, explains the
title as owing to the similitude between the divine providential governance of
the world and household government: "For the association of a father with his sons bears the form of monarchy, since the father cares for his children; and this is why Homer calls Zeus 'father'; it is the ideal of monarchy to be paternal rule."
(Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book Eight, Chapter
10). But while Zeus is not a very plausible candidate as creator
of the world, even though some of the later pagan theologians
squeeze him into that role, he is a likelier candidate as the
creator of mankind, which is how some pagans understood his common
and prevalent title of 'Father.' Dio Chrysostom, like Aristotle, sees the
principal point as governance, although a human king is father of his people
only metaphorically:
"Yet all these poets in precisely the same fashion call
the first and greatest god Father of the whole rational family
collectively, yes, and King besides. And trusting to these poets
men erect altars to Zeus the King and, what is more, some do not
hesitate even to call him Father in their prayers, believing
that there exists some such government and organization of the
universe as that. Therefore, from that standpoint at least, it
seems to me, they would not hesitate to apply the term 'home of
Zeus' to the entire universe — if indeed he is father of all
who live in it — yes, by Zeus, and his 'city' too, our Stoic
similitude, to suggest the greater office of the god. For
kingship is a word more appropriate to a city than to a home." (Dio Chrysostom, Thirty-sixth, or
Borysthenitic, Discourse, 36-37).
Dio, a Stoic, does in the end believe in creation, which probably
influences his use of the phrase 'Father': "At that time, therefore, the Creator and Father of the World, beholding the work of his hands, was not by any means merely pleased, for that is a lowly experience of lowly beings; nay, he rejoiced and was delighted exceedingly,
As on Olympus he sat, and his heart did laugh
For joy, beholding the gods
who were now all created and present before him." (Dio Chrysostom, Thirty-sixth, or
Borysthenitic, Discourse, 60). Another theory is that it's his
kindness: "For Zeus alone of the gods has the epithets of 'Father' and
'King,' 'Protector of Cities,' 'Lord of Friends and Comrades,' 'Guardian of
the Race,' and also 'Protector of Suppliants,' 'God of Refuge,' and 'God of
Hospitality,' these and his countless other titles signifying goodness and
the fount of goodness. He is addressed as 'King' because of his
dominion and power; as 'Father,' I ween, on account of his solicitude and
gentleness. . ." (Dio Chrysostom, The First Discourse on
Kingship, 39-40).
However their authors understood the title, ejaculations like this pagan prayer reflect an aspiration after divine sonship
which this misguided religion could not actually deliver:
"Never in me be this mind, O our father Zeus, but to the
paths of simplicity let me cleave throughout my life, that being
dead I may set upon my children a name that shall be of no ill
report." (Pindar, Odes, VIII, For Deinis of Aigina, Winner in the
Short Foot-Race, The Extant Odes of Pindar, Ernest Myers.)
The pagans prayed to their "Almighty Father: "Is it your pleasure,
Almighty Father, that the future shall be hidden in such utter
darkness?" (Silius Italicus, Punica, Book X, Kindle location 3207).
God is the father of all in the sense of creation, though, as even the
pagans realized, more particularly so of those who seek after Him.
The Deist Jean Jacques Rousseau fumed with indignation at the thought
that God was not equally the father of all: "I should say to the
advocates and professors of such a religion: 'Your God is not
mine! A Being who began his dispensations with partiality, selecting
one people and proscribing the rest of mankind, is not the common
father of the human race; a Being who destines to eternal punishment
the greater part of his creatures, is not that good and merciful God
who is pointed out by my reason." (Jean Jacques
Rousseau, Profession of Faith of a Savoyard Vicar, Part V).
To followers of the true and living God, He
is, in a certain sense,— by creation, the Father of all, but in
a special sense,— by adoption in Christ, the Father of the faithful in
particular. It's likely the disaffection is mutual. Given paganism, mortals
could be sons of
Zeus also in various senses, especially because given his amorous
escapades, earthly sons were born to him by natural generation.
Alexander the Great imagined himself to be the offspring of Zeus
Ammon, apparently in this biological, genetic sense. But the evasion remained
available to him, "Still more philosophical, however, was his own
[Alexander's] opinion and utterance on this head, namely that although God was indeed a common father of all mankind, still, He made peculiarly His own the noblest and best of them."
(Plutarch, Parallel Lives, Life of Alexander,
Chapter 27). So the pagans do not escape Rousseau's ire
either.
The Moabite stone, a pagan memorial found lying in the desert,
tells us the king was the son of Chemosh: "I [am]
Mesha, son of Chemosh [...], king of Moab. . ." (Atlas of Bible History,
Kindle location 1781). Pagans might fancy themselves the offspring of whatever non-entity
they adored, whose sphere of competence did not rise, in some cases, far
above the tribal level. Indeed some may have been deified ancestors:
“Extrabiblical confirmation of the Moabite rebellion
against Israel is extant in the Moabite Stone, discovered in 1868.
An inscription on the stone tells of the rebellion from the
perspective of Mesha, king of Moab. The text begins with, 'I am
Mesha, son of Chemosh . . .'”
(Currid, John D. (2013-08-31).
Against the Gods: The Polemical Theology of the Old Testament
(Kindle Locations 1872-1874). Crossway.)
Inasmuch as this next pagan lecturer is from the New Testament period, there is no way of
knowing if he was influenced by the preaching of Jesus of Nazareth, but he is a pagan and he is
certain we are children of God:
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