“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” — Romans 8:15
“Abba” (אַבָּא in Aramaic, transliterated into Greek as Ἀββά) is one of the most theologically rich and intimate words in the New Testament.
When Paul wrote those words to believers in Rome, he reached past Greek and grabbed an Aramaic word — Abba — and left it untranslated. He did the same thing inGalatians 4:6. And before Paul ever wrote it, Mark recorded Jesus crying it out in Gethsemane (Mark 14:36). Three times in the New Testament, and every single time, the writer immediately follows it with the Greek translation ho patēr — “the Father.[1]“
That detail alone should make us slow down. Why preserve the original Aramaic word at all?
More Than “Daddy”
Abba (אַבָּא) is Aramaic — the everyday spoken language of Jesus and first-century Jews in Palestine. Abba is the emphatic form of ab (‘father’) in Aramaic — the ordinary relational form used in direct address. A child would use it in the home. So would an adult son. So would an elderly daughter speaking to her aging father. It carried warmth, familiarity, and trust — but also honor and the full weight of a father-child relationship.
The word appears only three times in the Greek New Testament, and every time it appears it is immediately paired with the Greek translation ho patēr (“the Father”):
- Mark 14:36 — Jesus in Gethsemane: “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you…”– Romans 8:15 — Believers crying out by the Spirit of adoption- Galatians 4:6 — The Spirit of the Son in our hearts crying “Abba, Father”
Correcting a Popular Myth
You have probably heard a sermon claim that Abba means “Daddy.[6]” That idea traces back largely to Joachim Jeremias in the mid-twentieth century, and it has stuck in popular preaching ever since.[2] But Jeremias himself softened the claim later in life, and scholars like James Barr — in his now-classic 1988 article “Abba Isn’t ‘Daddy’” — have shown the case does not hold up.[3]
Grown adults used Abba for their fathers throughout life.[4] It was not baby talk. It was the natural, intimate, respectful word for “Father.”
Translating it as “Daddy” sentimentalizes something far more profound. The better picture is intimacy and reverence held together — the same warmth a beloved son has in his father’s presence, without losing the awe of who that Father actually is.
Why Paul Preserves the Aramaic
In the Greco-Roman world, the social and legal distance between slave and master was immense. A slave did not possess the familial standing to address the paterfamilias as a son would.
Paul is writing into that world, and he chooses the word huiothesia — a Roman legal term meaning the formal granting of full sonship, inheritance rights, and family identity. Adopted sons in Rome had every legal standing a natural-born son had.
Then Paul anchors that adoption to a single Aramaic word that Jesus himself used in the darkest moment of his earthly life. The Spirit of the Son — the same Spirit present in Christ as he cried ‘Abba‘ in Gethsemane — is now in us, and through him we cry the same word.
That is not “Daddy.” That is something far heavier and far more beautiful.
Second Temple Background
What makes this even more striking is the Second Temple Jewish backdrop. Israel collectively called God Father at times (Isaiah 63:16; 64:8), but individual intimacy with God as “my Father” was comparatively rare and weighty. Jesus not only uses that language personally — he extends participation in that relationship to his followers. Paul’s use of Abba is not merely emotional intimacy. It is participation in the sonship of the Messiah himself.
The Weight of What We Carry
The word Abba sits at the intersection of several things the New Testament is doing at once:
The intimacy of a child with a father. The legal standing of an adopted son. The cosmic weight of the Spirit of God bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God (Romans 8:16). The same cry Jesus made from the garden, now on our lips.
When you say “Father” in prayer, you are not using a polite religious title. You are using a word that carries the weight of a legal declaration, a relational claim, and the reality that the Spirit who was in the Son is now in you, and the cry he made is now yours to make.
That is worth slowing down for.
Sources: James Barr, “Abba Isn’t ‘Daddy’” (1988); Michael Heiser, Logos Bible Software notes onRomans 8:15; Greek interlinear onGalatians 4:6 andMark 14:36.
Footnotes
- Anthony Maas, “Abba,” in *The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church*, ed. Charles G. Herbermann et al. (New York: The Encyclopedia Press; The Universal Knowledge Foundation, 1907–1913).
- Deven K. MacDonald and Ernest van Eck, *Allegiance, Opposition, and Misunderstanding: A Narrative Critical Approach to Mark’s Christology* (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2018).
- James Barr, “Abba Isn’t Daddy,” *Journal of Theological Studies* 39, no. 1 (1988): 28–47, as summarized in MacDonald and van Eck.
- Robert L. Mowery, “Abba,” in *Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible*, ed. David Noel Freedman, Allen C. Myers, and Astrid B. Beck (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 2000), 2–3.
- Michael Downey, *The New Dictionary of Catholic Spirituality* (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2000), 2.
- Stewart Custer, *The Righteousness of God: A Commentary on Romans* (Greenville, SC: Bob Jones University Press, 2007), 156.