FATHER (Willer), (Heb. awb, ancestor, source, inventor), this word, besides its obvious and primary sense, bears, in Scripture, a number of otherupplications, most of which have, through the use of the Bible, become more or less common in all Christian countries.
(1) The Divine Father. The term Father is very often applied to God himself (Gen. xliv :19, 2o; Deut. xxxii :6; 2 Sam. vii :i4; Ps. lxxxix :27, 28; Is. lxiii :16; lxiv :8). The New Testament leaves little room to question that it is the intention of the sacred record to set God before us as the Father of all men, in the general sense of creator and preserver of all men, but more especially of believers, whether Jews or Christians. To the same effect is also a passage in Josephus's paraphrase of the law (Deut. xxi :18-2t), re specting rebellious sons, 'because he (God) is himself the father of the whole human race' (Antiq. iv :8, 24).
Without doubt, however, God is in a more espe cial and intimate manner, even as by covenant, the Father of the Jews (Jer. xxxi :9; Is. lxiii: ; lxiv:8 ; John viii:4i ; v:45 ; 2 Cor. vi:18); and also of Christians, or rather of all pious and believing persons, who are called 'sons of God' (John i :12; Rom. viii :16, etc.). Thus Jesus, in speaking to his disciples, calls God their Father (Matt. vi :4, 8, 15, 18; X :20, 29 ; xiii :43, etc.). The Apostles, also, for themselves and other Christians, call him 'Father' (Rom. i :7 ; Cor. i :3 ; 2 Cor. i :2 ; Gal. i :4; and many other places).
(2) Ancestors. Father is applied to any an cestor near or remote, or, to ancestors ('fathers') in general. The progenitor, or founder, or pair, arch of a tribe or nation, was also pre-eminently its father, as Abraham of the Jews. Examples of this abound. See, for instance, Dent. i ; Kings xi :12; Matt. iii :9; xxiii :3o; Mark xi :io; Luke i :32, 73; vi ;23, 26; John vii :22, etc.
(3) Chief or Ruler. Father is also applied as a title of respect to any head, chief, ruler, or elder, and especially to kings, prophets, and priests (Judg. xvii:to; xviii:19; I Sam. X:12; 2 Kings 6:12; v:13; vi:21; xiit:14; Prov. iv:1; Nfatt. xxiii:9; Acts vii:2; xxii:t ; Cor. iv :ts, etc.).
(4) Author or Source. The author, source, or beginner of anything is also called the Father of the same, or of those who follow him. Thus Jabal is called 'the father of those who dwell in tents, and have cattle': and Jubal, 'the father of all such as handle the harp and the organ' (Gen. IV:21, 22; comp. Job xxxviii:28; John
viii:44; Rom. iv:12). This use of the word is exceedingly common in the East to this dav, especially as applied in the formation of proper names, in which, also, the most curious Hebrew examples of this usage occur. (See An.) (5) The Father's Authority. The authority of a father was very great in patriarchal times; and although the power of life and death was virtually taken from the parent by the law of Nloses, which required him to bring his cause of complaint to the public tribunals (Deut. xxi:t8 21), all the more real powers of the paternal character were not only left unimpaired, but were made in a great degree the basis of the judicial polity which that law established. The children and even the grandchildren continued under the roof of the father and grandfather; they labored on his account. and were the most submissive of his servants. The property of the soil, the power of judgment, the civil right:, belonged to him only, and his SOTIS were merely his instruments and assistants.
(6) Filial Duty. Filial duty and obedience were, indeed, in the eyes of the Jewish legislator, of such high importance that great care was taken that the paternal authority should not be weakened by the withdrawal of a power so liable to fatal and barbarous abuse as that of capital punishment. Any outrage against a parent—a blow, a curse, or incorrigible profli gacy—was made a capital crime (Exod. xxi:t3, 17; Lev. xx:9). If the offense was public it was taken up by the witnesses as a crime against Jehovah, and the culprit was brought before the magistrates, whether the parent consented or not; and if the offense was hidden within the paternal walls, it devolved on the parents to de nounce him and to require his punishment.
It is a beautiful circumstance in the law of Moses that this filial respect is exacted for the mother as well as for the father. The threats and promises of the legislator distinguish not the one from the other; and the fifth commandtnent associates the father and mother in a precisely equal claim to honor from their children. The development of this interesting feature of the Nfosaical law belongs, however, to another head (see WomArt). (Lane, Mod. Egypt, i:84; Atkin son, Travels in Siberia, p. 559.)