the Third Week of Advent
free while helping to build churches and support pastors in Uganda.
Click here to learn more!
Bible Dictionaries
Abba
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or ABBA is the ‘emphatic’ form of the Aram. [Note: Aramaic.] word for ‘father.’ It is found in the Gr. and Eng. text of Mark 14:36 , Romans 8:15 , and Galatians 4:6 (in each case Abbâ, ho patçr , ‘Abba, Father’). Aram. [Note: Aramaic.] has no article, and the ‘emphatic’ affix â is usually the equivalent of the Heb. article. Both can represent the vocative case (for Hebrew see Davidson’s Syntax , § 21 f.); and abba occurs in the Pesb. of Luke 22:42; Luke 23:34 for pater . The ‘articular nominative’ is found in NT sixty times for the vocative; and so we have ho patçr for ô pater (Moulton, Gram. of NT Greek , p. 70). Jesus often addressed God as ‘Father’ or ‘my Father.’ In both cases He would probably use ‘Abba’; for ’abbâ may be used for ’âbî (Targ. on Genesis 19:34 ). In Mark 14:36 , ho patçr is perhaps a gloss added by the Evangelist, as in Mark 5:41; Mark 7:11; Mark 7:34 he adds an explanation of the Aram. [Note: Aramaic.] : but in Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:6 the Gentile Christians had learned for importunity to use the Aram. [Note: Aramaic.] word Abba; as the Jews in prayer borrowed Kyrie mou (‘my Lord’) from the Greek, and used it along with Heb. words for ‘my master,’ ‘my father’ (Schöttgen, Hor. Heb . 252).
J. T. Marshall.
These files are public domain.
Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission.
Hastings, James. Entry for 'Abba'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/a/abba.html. 1909.
