Abba is an Aramaic1 term for “father.” It is transliterated (written phonetically) in the Greek New Testament as ‘abba.’ The word is used by Jesus in Mark 14:36 and by Paul in Rom. 8:15 and Gal. 4:6. It was a term of endearment. Each occurrence of the word is in the vocative. This means it is used that a noun is referencing a person, “O Father!” Each of the three occurrences of the word do so with the Greek ‘pater’ which means ‘father.” So, each occurrence appears as “abba ho pater,” which is “Abba, Father!”
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1↑ | Aramaic is a dialect of Hebrew |
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