# G3962 - pater **Strong's:** [G3962](https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g3962/) · BLB lookup **Pronunciation:** pat-ayr' **Part of speech:** masculine noun **Hebrew equivalent (LXX):** [H0001 - ab](/codex/h0001-ab/) (אָב, "father"), the standard rendering. **NT occurrences:** ~414 ## Semantic range (Thayer / BDAG) 1. **Biological / immediate father**, male progenitor. 2. **Male ancestor / forefather**, extended forebears (e.g., Abraham, "our father Abraham," [Romans 4:1](/codex/romans-4-1/)). 3. **Founder, originator, head of a people / movement / school**, figurative paternity ([Romans 4:11-12](/codex/romans-4-11-12/) Abraham as "the father of all who believe"). 4. **Author / source / progenitor of a thing**, abstract origination ([John 8:44](/codex/john-8-44/) the devil as "father of lies"; [James 1:17](/codex/james-1-17/) God as "Father of lights"). 5. **God the Father**, the first person of the Trinity; specifically: - **Father of creation**, God as Creator and source of all being ([1 Corinthians 8:6](/codex/1-corinthians-8-6/) "one God, the Father, from whom are all things"). - **Father of Israel / of believers**, covenantal relational fatherhood ([Matthew 6:9](/codex/matthew-6-9/) "Our Father"; [Romans 8:15](/codex/romans-8-15/) "Abba! Father!"). - **Father of the Son**, eternal Trinitarian relation ([John 3:35](/codex/john-3-35/); 5:20; 14:9-11; 17:1ff). ## Theological force, God as Father The word's most theologically loaded use is **the Father** as the first person of the Trinity. Three distinct senses converge: 1. **Father of the Son eternally.** The Father / Son relation is *constitutive of the divine being*, not contingent. The Father is eternally *Father* because He eternally has the Son. This is the doctrine of *eternal generation* (see [G5207 - huios](/codex/g5207-huios/) and [G3439 - monogenes](/codex/g3439-monogenes/)). The Father is not "first" temporally, He is *primus* in the Trinitarian taxis of relation, the unbegotten source from whom the Son is eternally generated. 2. **Father of believers by adoption.** [Romans 8:15](/codex/romans-8-15/) / [Galatians 4:6](/codex/galatians-4-6/) / [Ephesians 1:5](/codex/ephesians-1-5/), through the Son, by the Spirit, believers are adopted as sons. We can address God as *Abba* (Aramaic intimate address, "Daddy") because the Spirit of the Son cries this in our hearts. Crucially: **adopted** sonship, not natural sonship. We are *children of God* (*tekna theou*) by grace; only Christ is *Son of God* (*Huios theou*) by nature. 3. **Father of creation.** Less central in NT than the first two senses but biblically real ([1 Corinthians 8:6](/codex/1-corinthians-8-6/); [James 1:17](/codex/james-1-17/)). God's fatherhood toward creation is *creational*, not constitutional, He made all things; He sustains them; but they are *creatures*, not *children* in the relational sense. The relationship between these three senses is critical: God is Father *of the Son* eternally; Father *of believers* derivatively, through union with the Son; Father *of creation* in the sense of origin and providence. **The Lord's Prayer** ([Matthew 6:9](/codex/matthew-6-9/) pending), *Pater hēmōn ho en tois ouranois*, captures the Christian distinctive: believers approach God in family-language, taught by the Son. This was striking in first-century Judaism, where address of God was typically more formal (*Adonai*, *Hashem*, etc.). Jesus's *Abba* is unprecedented in its intimacy. ## Notable verses ### The Father in Trinitarian formula - **[Matthew 28.19](/codex/matthew-28-19/)**, "in the name of the *Patēr* and the *Huios* and the Holy *Pneuma*" - **[2 Corinthians 13:14](/codex/2-corinthians-13-14/)**, "the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God [the Father], the fellowship of the Holy Spirit" - **[Ephesians 4:4-6](/codex/ephesians-4-4-6/)**, "one Spirit… one Lord… one God and *Patēr* of all" - **[1 Peter 1:2](/codex/1-peter-1-2/)**, "according to the foreknowledge of God the *Patēr*, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ" ### Father / Son relation - **[John 3:35](/codex/john-3-35/)**, "the *Patēr* loves the *Huios*" - **[John 5:19-23](/codex/john-5-19-23/)**, Father / Son interrelation; "the *Patēr* loves the *Huios* and shows Him all things" - **[John 10:30](/codex/john-10-30/)**, "I and the *Patēr* are one" ([John 10.30](/codex/john-10-30/)) - **[John 14:6-11](/codex/john-14-6-11/)**, "no one comes to the *Patēr* except through Me… he who has seen Me has seen the *Patēr*" - **[John 14:26](/codex/john-14-26/)**, "the *Patēr* will send" the Spirit ([John 14.26](/codex/john-14-26/)) - **John 17**, the High Priestly Prayer; *Patēr* address throughout - **[John 17.5](/codex/john-17-5/)**, "*Patēr*, glorify Me… with the glory which I had with You before the world was" - **[John 1.18](/codex/john-1-18/)**, "the only begotten God [or Son] who is in the bosom of the *Patēr*" - **[Hebrews 1:5](/codex/hebrews-1-5/)**, "I will be a *Patēr* to Him, and He shall be a *Huios* to Me" (citing [2 Sam 7:14](/codex/2-samuel-7-14/), [Ps 2:7](/codex/psalms-2-7/)) ### Father of believers - **[Matthew 6:9](/codex/matthew-6-9/)**, "Our *Patēr* who is in heaven" - **[Romans 8:15](/codex/romans-8-15/)**, "you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, '*Abba*! *Patēr*!'" - **[Galatians 4:6](/codex/galatians-4-6/)**, "God has sent forth the Spirit of His *Huios* into our hearts, crying, '*Abba*! *Patēr*!'" - **[Ephesians 1:5](/codex/ephesians-1-5/)**, "predestined to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself" - **[John 1:12](/codex/john-1-12/)**, "to those who believe in His name, He gave the right to become children of God" (note: *tekna*, not *huioi*) - **[1 John 3:1](/codex/1-john-3-1/)**, "see what kind of love the *Patēr* has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God" - **[2 Corinthians 6:18](/codex/2-corinthians-6-18/)**, "I will be a *Patēr* to you, and you will be sons and daughters to Me" ### Creator-Father - **[1 Corinthians 8.6](/codex/1-corinthians-8-6/)**, "for us there is one God, the *Patēr*, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him" - **[James 1:17](/codex/james-1-17/)**, "the *Patēr* of lights, with whom there is no variation" - **[Acts 17:28-29](/codex/acts-17-28-29/)**, "in Him we live and move and exist… we are also His offspring" ### Earthly fathers - **[Matthew 19:5](/codex/matthew-19-5/)**, "for this reason a man shall leave his *patēr*" - **[Ephesians 6:4](/codex/ephesians-6-4/)**, "fathers, do not provoke your children" - **[Hebrews 12:9](/codex/hebrews-12-9/)**, earthly *patēr* (discipline) ### Father of lies / abstract - **[John 8:44](/codex/john-8-44/)**, "you are of your *patēr* the devil… he is a liar and the *patēr* of lies" - **[Romans 4:11-12](/codex/romans-4-11-12/), [16-17](/codex/romans-4-16-17/)**, Abraham as "the *patēr* of all who believe" ## Patristic / scholarly note The doctrine of God-as-Father is codified in the Nicene Creed (AD 325, 381): "We believe in one God, the *Father* Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth…" and in the Apostles' Creed: "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth." The Nicene affirmation that the Son is *gennēthenta ek tou Patros* ("begotten of the Father") and *homoousion tō Patri* ("of one essence with the Father") establishes the Trinitarian framework. Athanasius (*Discourses Against the Arians* I.14, c. AD 358; *Letter on the Synods*) presses the eternal-Father claim: God did not *become* Father; He *is* eternally Father by virtue of eternally generating the Son. This contradicts Arius, who held that there was "a time when the Son was not", implying there was a time when the Father was not Father, which would mean God's nature underwent change. The Cappadocians (Basil, Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory of Nyssa) develop the doctrine of *taxis*, order in the divine persons without inequality, with the Father as "the cause" of the Son and Spirit (in the relational, not subordinationist, sense). Eastern Orthodoxy preserves this *monarchia of the Father* particularly strongly; Western theology (Augustine, *De Trinitate*) emphasizes the equal divinity and mutual indwelling more centrally. Recent Reformed treatments: Robert Letham (*The Holy Trinity*, 2004), Fred Sanders (*The Deep Things of God*, 2010), and Scott Swain (*The Trinity*, 2020) develop the biblical theology of the Father in robustly Trinitarian terms. ## Verses in this codex _See Obsidian's backlinks pane for every verse page linking here._ ## See also - [G5207 - huios](/codex/g5207-huios/), *huios* (Son), the correlative - [G4151 - pneuma](/codex/g4151-pneuma/), *pneuma* (Spirit), the third Trinitarian person - [G2316 - theos](/codex/g2316-theos/), *theos* (God), applied to Father, Son, and Spirit - [G3439 - monogenes](/codex/g3439-monogenes/), "only begotten", the Son's unique relation to the Father - [H0001 - ab](/codex/h0001-ab/), Hebrew "father" - [Matthew 28.19](/codex/matthew-28-19/), Trinitarian formula - [John 14.26](/codex/john-14-26/), [John 17.5](/codex/john-17-5/), Father-Son relational language