Father - UPDV Updated Bible Version

The word father in the UPDV scriptures runs along two main tracks. One is the title's misuse — applied to a priest as a hireling, condemned in narrative example. The other, far larger, is the name itself given to Yahweh: father of Israel, father of the fatherless, father of all who call on him, the one God and Father from whom every household of faith descends.

Father as a Misused Title

The first scriptural caution against the word as a title attaches to Micah's hired Levite. Micah secures the man with the offer, "Dwell with me, and be to me a father and a priest, and I will give you ten [shekels] of silver by the year, and a suit of apparel, and your victuals" (Jud 17:10). The Levite accepts, and the chapter goes on to expose the whole arrangement as illicit household religion. The name "father" is bought; the office is hired; the title is corrupted at its source.

Yahweh as Father of Israel

Yahweh's own claim on the title comes through Moses' song: "Isn't he your father who has bought you? He has made you, and established you" (Dt 32:6). The Father here is creator and acquirer at once — Israel's existence and Israel's redemption both trace back to him. David takes up the same name in covenantal blessing — "Blessed be you, O Yahweh, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever" (1Ch 29:10) — and Malachi presses it as a call to fraternal honesty: "Don't we all have one father? Has not one God created us? Why do we betray every man against his brother, profaning the covenant of our fathers?" (Mal 2:10).

Isaiah pushes the same name into the mouth of a community that has lost its other anchors. "For you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us: you, O Yahweh, are our Father; our Redeemer from everlasting is your name" (Is 63:16). The fatherhood does not depend on patriarchal recognition — it depends on Yahweh. A chapter later the metaphor sharpens into the potter's hands: "But now, O Yahweh, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you our potter; and all of us are the work of your hand" (Is 64:8).

The God of the Fathers

Running parallel to Yahweh's direct fatherhood is the formula that names him by relation to the patriarchs. Moses' commissioning at the burning bush turns on it — "The God of your⁺ fathers has sent me to you⁺" (Ex 3:13) — and the formula becomes a recurring identifier of Yahweh's covenant fidelity. Moses pronounces blessing in the same terms: "Yahweh, the God of your⁺ fathers, may he make you⁺ a thousand times as many as you⁺ are, and bless you⁺, as he has promised you⁺!" (Dt 1:11). Statutes are given so that "you⁺ may live, and go in and possess the land which Yahweh, the God of your⁺ fathers, gives you⁺" (Dt 4:1). Joshua reproves delay with it (Jos 18:3); the prophet Oded names Judah's defeat as the doing of "Yahweh, the God of your⁺ fathers" (2Ch 28:9); Hezekiah commissions Levitical reform "to sanctify the house of Yahweh, the God of your⁺ fathers" (2Ch 29:5). The phrase carries the weight of every prior generation forward into the present command.

Father of the Fatherless

The fatherhood metaphor reaches outward to those without natural fathers. "A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, Is God in his holy habitation" (Ps 68:5). The placement is deliberate — the holy habitation, the place of Yahweh's reign, is also where the unclaimed find a parent. Sirach echoes the line as a vocation for the faithful: "Be as a father to the fatherless, And in the place of a husband to widows. And God will call you son, And will be gracious to you" (Sir 4:10). Imitating Yahweh's fatherhood is itself the path to being called his child. Sirach also turns the title into prayer — "O Lord, Father, and Master of my life, Do not abandon me to their counsel" (Sir 23:4) — and at the close of the book, "Yahweh, you are my Father, My God, and the strength of my salvation, Do not forsake me in the day of trouble, In the day of wasteness and desolation" (Sir 51:10).

One God and Father of All

The apostolic writings extend the title to include Gentiles. Paul presses the question: "Or is God [the God] of Jews only? Is he not [the God] of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also" (Ro 3:29). Adoption supplies the access: "For you⁺ didn't receive the spirit of slavery again to fear; but you⁺ received the spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, Abba, Father" (Ro 8:15). The Father is the source from whom all things proceed — "yet to us there is one God the Father, of whom are all things, and we to him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him" (1Co 8:6) — and the comprehensive scope is named at Ephesians: "one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all" (Eph 4:6).

The same name carries forward into the household epistles. Hebrews contrasts it with earthly paternity: "Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we gave them reverence: and shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?" (Heb 12:9). Peter ties the name to a sober walk: "And if you⁺ call on him as Father, who without favoritism judges according to each man's work, pass the time of your⁺ sojourning in fear" (1Pe 1:17). The Father judges; calling him Father does not relax the verdict — it sharpens it.

Knowing the Father