ment and in other ancient religions, but Jesus gave it a
new meaning both extensively and intensively. Exten-
sively, in the Old Testament God was the Father of
Israel, ³ of the king, ⁴ and of the righteous;5 but he was
never called the Father of each individual Israelite, much
less of all men. The Gentiles stood outside of his fatherly
interest and care. ⁶ For Jesus, on the contrary, God was
the Father of every individual human being. When he
said, "Your Heavenly Father feeds the birds of the
heaven, and clothes the lilies and the grass of the field,"
and added, "Are ye not of much more value than they?
shall He not much more feed and clothe you?" he im-
plied that God's fatherly care extends even to the lower
orders of life; and therefore, all men must be included
in its scope. In the parable of the good Samaritan he
taught that God's fatherhood transcends the limits of
race; and in the parables of the two sons and of the
prodigal son he taught that God is the Father of sinners
as well as of the righteous. ⁷

Intensively also Jesus' conception of the fatherhood
of God went far beyond the teaching of the Old Testa-
ment. In the Old Testament, as in many other ancient
religions, Father meant primarily "begetter," or "crea-
tor." ⁸ It was also a title of respect expressing the divine
superiority to men in wisdom, power, and goodness; and
a title of authority describing God as the ruler of the
world, just as the patriarchal father was the ruler of his
family. Rarely, and only in the later Old Testament
books, does Father express the parental love of God
toward his children. ⁹

All these older meanings of fatherhood Jesus re-
tained in his conception of God. God is Father because

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