“Daddy” God?

It is popularly taught that during biblical times, the Aramaic word abba was a casual, childlike word that was used by Jewish children to address their fathers—just like the English word “daddy”. Based on this, many Christians address God as “Daddy God”. The following is an example of how this popular belief is typically articulated:

The word Abba is an Aramaic word that would most closely be translated as “Daddy.” It was a common term that young children would use to address their fathers. It signifies the close, intimate relationship of a father to his child, as well as the childlike trust that a young child puts in his “daddy.”
(Source: https://www.gotquestions.org/Abba-Father.html, Accessed: 18 June 2017)

In reality, abba was the normal Aramaic word for “father”. Apart from abba, there was no other word in the Aramaic language that could have been used to address someone as “father” in a mature, solemn, and respectful manner. Thus, abba was used not only by children, but also by adults. It was used not only in casual settings, but also in formal situations. Thus, there was nothing particularly casual or childlike about addressing one’s father as abba.

Aramaic did have casual, childlike words which Jewish children used to address their fathers as “daddy”—such as babba and babbi. However, Jesus and the first Christians never used those words to address God. Instead, they used the word abba, which had no inherent sense of casualness or childlikeness.

Furthermore, abba is used three times New Testament (Mark 14:36; Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6), and it is always followed by the equivalent expression in the Greek language: pater, meaning “father”. Again, pater is the normal word for “father” in Greek. If Jesus and the first Christians had wanted to use a casual, childlike word equivalent to “daddy”, they could have used Greek words like patridion or pappas, but they did not.

Today, speakers of Modern Israeli Hebrew do use the word abba as a casual, childlike term meaning “daddy”. However, it is not reasonable to assume that this must have also been the case during ancient times.

Bibliography

Barr, James, “Abba Isn’t Daddy”, Journal of Theological Studies, 39 (1988), pp. 28–47.

D’Angelo, Mary Rose, “Abba and ‘Father’: Imperial Theology and the Jesus Traditions”, Journal of Biblical Literature, 111 (1992), pp. 611–630.

Ryken, Philip Graham, When You Pray (2000), pp. 57–58.

Vermes, Geza, Jesus and the World of Judaism (1983), p. 42.