a. The Fatherhood of God. --The fundamental fact
in the religious experience of Jesus was the fatherhood
of God. He constantly called God "my Father," and
spoke of himself as "the Son." ¹ He recognized that
God was the Father of other men also, but he carefully
distinguished his sonship from theirs. He spoke of "your
Father" and "my Father," but never of "our Father."
He taught his disciples: "After this manner pray ye,
Our Father who art in Heaven," but he did not join
in the petition. He was conscious of a unique filial rela-
tion. At his baptism and at his transfiguration he was
aware of a voice saying, "This is my Son, my Beloved,
in whom I am well pleased"; and, according to the re-
markable passage from the Quelle which has been pre-
served both by Matthew and by Luke, he declared: "All
things have been delivered unto me of my Father; and
no one knoweth the Son, save the Father; neither doth
any know the Father, save the Son, and he to whomso-
ever the Son willeth to reveal him." ² Nevertheless, this
consciousness of his own peculiar sonship did not hinder,
but rather helped him, to realise that other men also
were children of God in a very deep and true sense. On
this foundation of personal experience of sonship to God
Jesus based his gospel. Father became his constant name
for God, being used one hundred and eighty times in our
canonical Gospels.

This title had been applied to God in the Old Testa-

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