Bible Synapse
May we call anyone ‘father’?
Hard question · The life of Jesus · raised by 1 of the lists sceptics circulate
See the passages joined in the interactive mapThe passages
Do not be called Rabbi or master, “And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven”.
But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.
“Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land.”
Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
As Elijah is taken up, Elisha cries, “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof”.
And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces.
Paul to the Corinthians: “yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel”.
For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.
John writes to the church: “I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning”.
I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father.
The objection
Jesus says, “call no man your father upon the earth”. Yet the commandment says “Honour thy father and thy mother”, Elisha cried “My father” to Elijah, Paul calls himself the Corinthians’ father in Christ, and John writes to the ‘fathers’ in the church. May we call anyone father or not?
The answer
Jesus is speaking about religious titles, not about family life. The verse sits between two others: “be not ye called Rabbi” and “Neither be ye called masters” (Matthew 23:8, 10). All three were titles of honour that the scribes and Pharisees loved, along with the best seats at feasts and greetings in the market (23:6–7), and ‘father’ was used of revered teachers. The point of all three is the same: one is your Teacher, one your Father, one your Master, “and all ye are brethren” (23:8). No human teacher is to be given the authority over conscience that belongs to God and to Christ. The passage ends with the lesson: “he that is greatest among you shall be your servant” (23:11).
Jesus himself did not take his words to forbid calling one’s father ‘father’. In the same Gospel he rebukes the Pharisees for evading the command “Honour thy father and mother” (Matthew 15:4), and Paul repeats that command for Christians (Ephesians 6:2). ‘Father’ was also an old word of respect. Elisha cried “My father, my father” as Elijah was taken up (2 Kings 2:12), and the king of Israel called Elisha “My father” (2 Kings 6:21). These were words of love and honour for a master and a man of God, not a claim that he stood in God’s place, and that claim is what Jesus forbids. His followers used the word freely: Stephen addressed the council as “Men, brethren, and fathers” (Acts 7:2), Paul spoke of himself as a father to his converts (1 Corinthians 4:15), and John wrote to the mature believers as ‘fathers’ (1 John 2:13). The saying is put in a deliberately absolute form to make its point sharply. Barnes and Gill both read it this way: it forbids giving any man the place that belongs to God, not the ordinary words of family and respect.
Still open
Christians differ over whether the saying rules out ‘Father’ as a title for clergy. Catholic and Orthodox Christians point to Paul’s spiritual fatherhood (1 Corinthians 4:15) and use the title; many Protestants avoid it. On either view the verse does not forbid calling one’s own father ‘father’.
From the classic commentators
our Lord does not mean, by any of these expressions, to set aside all names and titles, of natural and civil distinction among men, but only to reject all such names and titles, as are used to signify an authoritative power over men's consciences, in matters of faith and obedience; in which, God and Christ are only to be attended to.John Gill, Exposition of the Bible, on Matthew 23:9 (1746–1763)