The Case For Christ

elationship between a child and his father," Witherington
explained. "Interestingly, it's also the term disciples used for
a beloved teacher in early Judaism. But Jesus used it of God-and
as far as I can tell, he and his followers were the only ones
praying to God that way."
When I asked Witherington to expand on the importance of this, he
said, "In the context in which Jesus operated, it was customary
for Jews to work around having to say the name of God. His name
was the most holy word you could speak, and they even feared
mispronouncing it. If they were going to address God, they might
say something like, 'The Holy One, blessed be he,' but they were
not going to use his personal name."
"And 'Abba' is a personal term," I said.
"Very personal," he replied. "It's the term of endearment in
which a child would say to a parent, 'Father Dearest, what would
you have me do?'"
However, I spotted an apparent inconsistency. "Wait a second," I
interjected. "Praying 'Abba' must not imply that Jesus thinks
he's God, because he taught his disciples to use the same term in
their own prayers, and they're not God."
"Actually," came Witherington's reply, "the significance of
'Abba' is that Jesus is the initiator of an intimate relationship
that was previously unavailable. The question is, What kind of
person can change the terms of relating to God? What kind of
person can initiate a new covenental relationship with God?"
His distinction made sense to me. "So how significant do you
consider Jesus' use of 'Abba' to be?" I asked.
"Quite significant," he answered. "It implies that Jesus had a
degree of intimacy with God that is unlike anything in the
Judaism of his day. And listen, here's the kicker: Jesus is
saying that only through having a relationship with him does this
kind of prayer language - this kind of 'Abba' relationship with
God-become possible. That says volumes about how he regarded
himself."
Witherington started to add another important clue-Jesus'
repeated reference to himself as the "Son of Man"-but I let him
know that a previous experts Craig Blomberg, had already
explained that this was a reference to Daniel 7. This term,
Witherington agreed, is extremely important in revealing Jesus'
messianic or transcendent self-understanding.