Mark 14:36

*Abba is the Aramaic word for father* — the language Jesus spoke in daily life, distinct from the Hebrew of the Torah scrolls. Scholars long described Abba as a child's word, closer to daddy than father, though more recent work tempers that — adult sons used it too. What it carries is intimacy and trust, not formality. Jesus uses it in Gethsemane, on the night of his arrest, in the prayer that ends not what I will, but what thou wilt. Paul reaches for the same word twice, in Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:6 — arguing that the Spirit who lived in Christ now lives in every believer and teaches them to address God the same way. The most intimate prayer in scripture is one word — and it is the word that crosses, in the Spirit, from the Son to the adopted sons.

• Romans 8
• Galatians 4
• Matthew 6
• John 17