v>»n ,. . a-\v 1^ th- translation of the OT into Greek (3rtl ,..,„ ; , ) tl,' tendency towards a more abstract ~n«P ■»» ^J . i.l'i^ 111 I'll -t The translators sought to remove tne inou„iii- ,;;,( i;."l ImI .ome into actual contact w th i n 1"« ' ,„:; 'miI, Ik 1.-5 call God a man of -nar but render tl e p^ ^-^g^ b.v the Lord who makes «ar M ■• ^ ^'^
• to God in the mount," as the or ^ ^j
goes up ' to the mojmt of God SI ,^^
not see the God of Israel (E\ 4
where He stood. . . , . s of
As in the Greek translation of t ^^
Onkelos and Jonathan (1st cent B c ) ^l i
safeguard the holiness of God Mremmn H ir ^ ^^ ^^^^ An illustration may be cited from t n l^ it j
the heavenly visitants ate of the repa-^t 11 "r-"^ ^^ ^^ ^ provided, but Onkelos changes it to Jt ■ ' \\ tl tl e
thevate.' Such was the method of the T r t " '' J,^^
removal of God far from men there came t I i "it ". ( course of time an elaborate doctrine of a ■> i ""' ^j
not necessary correlate of the transcc i t i u i
°But though the scribes remo^ed ( od fir fiom contact with man and the world, then conception of Him was unspiritual
He is pictured in the Talm .d "f Jeruja em ■« a -e^t Kf b^
He also fulfils the injunction to r e 1 1- i i re i ^ ^
(!iee Gfrorer. Das Jahrhiwl rt 1 u »„t, on of
Woi.^pp.ir.lS) Thust eetral eremoil ept on o,
reUgion at last took co.n,_^ te , /^ «' , '^, .,,ound
and threw the mesh of Its e la , "^i „ , , f i ho ah
God Himself. The prophet I ■■ ^ ' o I ' '
was lost ; the glow of lovin kindne 3 1 VnPn ^ ho was l»?f.i='?fi°So,rS!?;Mn"ttrnr;er^a;s to L scnbe but
cauea tne nwi> w"<^, '
whom no one could reall..
To this conception of Go 1
Hi
t n < f His trast Jesus tHe
nces , 1 1 onl\ I I iin 1 God thclather Jl us t
10 tnis concepLiuu oi ^" Fatherhood by Jesus form . The scribes put God in tht taught that He is near Tl is intensely concerned witl Jesus taught that He is full for the heart of man To t was the God of scribes to K
of all men. The reluious te i hti t Je us time fell very far below the prophetic conception ol God ; Jesus rose still further abo^ e it
For the application of the teim 'father to Joseph, see artt. BiRTH OF CHRIST and Joseph.
IiTFRiTiBE —The works on XT Theology by Holtzmann (H .T.)," Bevschlag, Stevens, and Gould; '■''''^^^f^ie Uhrc
/esu ■ Gilbert ThS Revelation of Jejnis : Bousset, 2)ic i!e£i<;ioii If Ji<de X"«- B. Weiss, Die Religion .(,•> XT; Fairbairn
Chrit7nMTTh.^l- 440 ff. ; Dale in Kxpo.itor y. vu. 11S98)
se" lio. George II. Gilbert.
FATHERS.— The plural of 'father' is found in 14 passages in the Gospels, once (in the Greek) with no determining word (Lk 1"), twicejvith the article only, 'the fathers' (J" ^^^ RV„ '">■ ^"^ ]} times with a pronoun: 'our (->lt,f* > ^ij ' ' ' Jn 4>» 6''); 'your' <Mt 23^ I-k 11--/', .In b^)^; 'their' (Lk 6-^-='=). With one exception (Lk 1 ') where it means 'parents,' as contrasted with ' children,' it is always employed in the sense of 'ancestors,' as in innumerable pas.sages in the Ui (Gn 47» i K 11« 14=' 15* etc.), the Apocrypha *a'^Sth;Pseudepigrapha(2Es7-Ps-Sol8-9-etc.), and the historical Assyrian texts {mrrrmi aht;a = ' the kings my fathers,' KIB ii. 1-0, 1 ,2, etc. !
As early as about B.C. 200 the Heb. woul ''.;'/' came to have the narrower meaning of ■iistni- guTshed ancestors.' The long histoncal review in Sir 44-49 opens (Heb.):
The fathers praised are Enoch Noah, Abraha,m, Isaac Israelf Moses, Aaron, Plunehas, Jos^.ua, Caleb the Judges, Samuel, Nathan Bav.d bolo- mon EHiah. lilisha, Hezekiah, Lsaiah, Josiah, ri"miah, Eiekiel, Job, the Twelve, Zerubbabel, Toshua the priest, Kehemiah. In a sort of ap- ^endLK (49»-^ are given Enoch (again), Josepl., Shem Seth Enos, Adam. The Hebrew heading o these cikpters, 'Praise of the fathers of the world 'or as'^owey and Neubauer render, ' Praise of the patriarchs,' cannot be urged, as it may be o iuch Iter date. The Greek heading »a«p,.. 1. \s of more value,, as it may ^e Pre-Christiau.
the BabylonTan Ttllmud (Berak 166) it is said: Onlv three are called fathers.' It is assumed that A^rSiam, Is^c and Jacob were 'the ?^--^^- ^-rrpllenre The group is referred to o times m lue Cosoels (Alt »■' 22==, J^Ik 12=^ Lk 13=« 20"), and probably without the names, in one of the passages ?[tedabo've (Jn 7= 'not that it [circumcision] is of Mosi but'o^f the fathers ■). The ' f-th^^' ^J- V"
"t^ "f°no?able piety or renown, -re especial^ tlie three patriarchs who were regarded as, the nt^t Llgt^ tf the great goodness of .son. c^ the fathers,''especially of Abraham, ^vas he pf^ to their sinful descendants, which fo^^"/ «xpiessioii in the phrase zcckhUk 'abvth 'merit of the fathers ooftermetVithintheTd^^^^^^^ far back a^ the time of Christ and the Apostles^ It probably underlies the words of ^t. Pau tUej are beloved for the fathers' sakes (Ko 11 )'/"^ evidently lurks in the proud boast of being the seed of Abraham or children of Abraham (Mt 3', T^ 18 Tt, S33.3S etc). The pluase, however, is never "met with in thi GospelF. The allied tel.ef that te holy fathers could effectually intercede for thrir Sed descendants, which i« di™ly attested in some of the Pseudepigraphji (Syr. Apoc. : Bar 85- Sib. Oracles ii 330-333), is "npl-l^^^ the parable of the ^ch Man and Lazarus. 1 he rich man in Hades appeals, not to God, but to one of the fathers (Lk 16^^). Still tliere is no direct mention of their interces.sion in the Gospels. The use of the term 'fathers' in the sense of distinguished teachers of the Law, who prolonged the line of tradition ' which has beconie so widely known through the famous Talnmdic tractate ptkcAMh o? Massel-cth ^bSth '}\^^nrevresentM in the Gospels, unless it is alluded to or echoed in the title 'father' applied to a living rabbi (>It23»).