Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§16.2 How Did Jesus See His Own Role?
retrojected into the Jesus tradition. This likelihood is strengthened by three factors.
(1) In only one of his recorded prayers does Jesus fail to call on God as 'Father',
and that is the cry on the cross: 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'
(Mark 15.34 par.). 43 The tradition in effect acknowledges an exception here. Even
the redactional history of the unanimous tradition points to a motif elaborated
rather than invented. (2) The prayer Jesus taught his disciples encourages them also
to address God as 'Father'. The obvious implication is that this manner of address
was seen from the beginning as an echo of Jesus' own manner of praying. So far as
the Gethsemane prayer is concerned it would hardly be sufficient to conclude simply
that it was derived from the Lord's Prayer. More likely both elements are rooted
in a common memory of Jesus' own prayer and teaching on prayer. (3) We will return
to the testimony of early Christian prayer (Rom. 8.15; Gal. 4.6) below.
There are also good grounds for the further conclusion that Jesus used the
Aramaic address Abba. 44 The use of this term is attested in the Jesus tradition
only in Mark 14.36. But since Matthew and Luke read the Greek vocative pater
at that point, the probability is that underlying the vocative pater in the other
prayers of Jesus (including the Lord's Prayer) was Aramaic abba. 45 The most
striking evidence here is given by Paul's evocation of what seems to have been a
(or the) common prayer form within his churches:
Rom. 8.15-17: You have received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry,
"Abba, Father". The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are
children of God. And if children, also heirs — heirs of God and heirs together
with Christ.
Gal. 4.6-7: God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying, "Abba, Father".
Consequently you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then
also an heir through God.
The notable features here are threefold. First, Paul reminds his readers of what he
knew (Galatians) and could assume (Romans) was an experience shared by Gen-
43. 'If one accepts literally that anguish at the opening moment (Gethsemane) when Jesus
could still call God "Abba, Father", one should accept equally literally this screamed protest
against abandonment wrenched from the utterly forlorn Jesus who now is so isolated and
estranged that he no longer uses "Father" language but speaks as the humblest servant' (Brown,
Death of the Messiah 1051).
44. Despite the sparsity of evidence, the support for this conclusion is amazingly strong;
e.g., Hahn, Hoheitstitel 320 (Titles 307); Perrin, Rediscovering 40-41; Funk, Honest 208.
45. It is evident from the parallel forms in Matt. 11.25-26/Luke 10.21, one with vocative
pater, the other with ho pater, that ho pater also functioned as a form of address, hence the
translation, 'Abba (that is) ho pater''= 'Abba, Father'. As Mark 14.36 also indicates, the latter
quickly established itself in the Jesus tradition and in Christian prayer.
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