Jeremiah 3:4

3:4 Even now you say to me, ‘You are my father! ¹ 

You have been my faithful companion ever since I was young.

Isaiah 63:16

63:16 For you are our father,

though Abraham does not know us

and Israel does not recognize us.

You, Lord, are our father;

you have been called our protector from ancient times. ² 

Isaiah 64:8

64:8 Yet, ³  Lord, you are our father.

We are the clay, and you are our potter;

we are all the product of your labor. ⁴ 

Matthew 6:8-9

6:8 Do ⁵  not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 6:9 So pray this way: ⁶ 

Our Father ⁷  in heaven, may your name be honored, ⁸ 

Romans 8:15-17

8:15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery leading again to fear, ⁹  but you received the Spirit of adoption, ¹⁰  by whom ¹¹  we cry, “Abba, Father.” 8:16 The Spirit himself bears witness to ¹²  our spirit that we are God’s children. 8:17 And if children, then heirs (namely, heirs of God and also fellow heirs with Christ) ¹³  – if indeed we suffer with him so we may also be glorified with him.

Galatians 4:5

4:5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we may be adopted as sons with full rights. ¹⁴ 

[3:4]  ¹ tn Heb “Have you not just now called out to me, ‘[you are] my father!’?” The rhetorical question expects a positive answer.

[63:16]  ² tn Heb “our protector [or “redeemer”] from antiquity [is] your name.”

[64:8]  ³ tn On the force of וְעַתָּה (vÿ’attah) here, see HALOT 902 s.v. עַתָּה.

[64:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “the work of your hand.”

[6:8]  ⁵ tn Grk “So do not.” Here οὖν (oun) has not been translated.

[6:9]  ⁶ sn Pray this way. What follows, although traditionally known as the Lord’s prayer, is really the disciples’ prayer. It represents how they are to approach God, by acknowledging his uniqueness and their need for his provision and protection.

[6:9]  ⁷ sn God is addressed in terms of intimacy (Father). The original Semitic term here was probably Abba. The term is a little unusual in a personal prayer, especially as it lacks qualification. It is not the exact equivalent of “daddy” (as is sometimes popularly suggested), but it does suggest a close, familial relationship.

[6:9]  ⁸ tn Grk “hallowed be your name.”

[8:15]  ⁹ tn Grk “slavery again to fear.”

[8:15]  ¹⁰ tn The Greek term υἱοθεσία (Juioqesia) was originally a legal technical term for adoption as a son with full rights of inheritance. BDAG 1024 s.v. notes, “a legal t.t. of ‘adoption’ of children, in our lit., i.e. in Paul, only in a transferred sense of a transcendent filial relationship between God and humans (with the legal aspect, not gender specificity, as major semantic component).”

[8:15]  ¹¹ tn Or “in that.”

[8:16]  ¹² tn Or possibly “with.” ExSyn 160-61, however, notes the following: “At issue, grammatically, is whether the Spirit testifies alongside of our spirit (dat. of association), or whether he testifies to our spirit (indirect object) that we are God’s children. If the former, the one receiving this testimony is unstated (is it God? or believers?). If the latter, the believer receives the testimony and hence is assured of salvation via the inner witness of the Spirit. The first view has the advantage of a σύν- (sun-) prefixed verb, which might be expected to take an accompanying dat. of association (and is supported by NEB, JB, etc.). But there are three reasons why πνεύματι (pneumati) should not be taken as association: (1) Grammatically, a dat. with a σύν- prefixed verb does not necessarily indicate association. This, of course, does not preclude such here, but this fact at least opens up the alternatives in this text. (2) Lexically, though συμμαρτυρέω (summarturew) originally bore an associative idea, it developed in the direction of merely intensifying μαρτυρέω (marturew). This is surely the case in the only other NT text with a dat. (Rom 9:1). (3) Contextually, a dat. of association does not seem to support Paul’s argument: ‘What standing has our spirit in this matter? Of itself it surely has no right at all to testify to our being sons of God’ [C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans [ICC], 1:403]. In sum, Rom 8:16 seems to be secure as a text in which the believer’s assurance of salvation is based on the inner witness of the Spirit. The implications of this for one’s soteriology are profound: The objective data, as helpful as they are, cannot by themselves provide assurance of salvation; the believer also needs (and receives) an existential, ongoing encounter with God’s Spirit in order to gain that familial comfort.”

[8:17]  ¹³ tn Grk “on the one hand, heirs of God; on the other hand, fellow heirs with Christ.” Some prefer to render v. 17 as follows: “And if children, then heirs – that is, heirs of God. Also fellow heirs with Christ if indeed we suffer with him so we may also be glorified with him.” Such a translation suggests two distinct inheritances, one coming to all of God’s children, the other coming only to those who suffer with Christ. The difficulty of this view, however, is that it ignores the correlative conjunctions μέν…δέ (men…de, “on the one hand…on the other hand”): The construction strongly suggests that the inheritances cannot be separated since both explain “then heirs.” For this reason, the preferred translation puts this explanation in parentheses.

[4:5]  ¹⁴ tn The Greek term υἱοθεσία (Juioqesia) was originally a legal technical term for adoption as a son with full rights of inheritance. BDAG 1024 s.v. notes, “a legal t.t. of ‘adoption’ of children, in our lit., i.e. in Paul, only in a transferred sense of a transcendent filial relationship between God and humans (with the legal aspect, not gender specificity, as major semantic component).” Although some modern translations remove the filial sense completely and render the term merely “adoption” (cf. NAB), the retention of this component of meaning was accomplished in the present translation by the phrase “as sons.”