"Father in Heaven"

[Jac3510]

I did a quick search today and found that the phrase "heavenly Father" and related terms (e.g., "your faith who is in heaven, my father in heaven, etc.") occurs 22 times in the NT. Always on the lips of Jesus. Of those, once is in Mark and once in Luke. The remaining 20 times are all in Matthew.

I have drawn no conclusions from this yet other than the fact that Matthew is distinctly interested in identifying God has Jesus' (and our) heavenly Father. Somehow, that term seems important to him and for his argument.

Any initial thoughts from ye scholars as to what Matthew's interest in the phrase might be?

[neo-x]

Matthew also uses the phrase kingdom of heaven 32 times. I think he wanted to create a dichotomy. Heaven and earth. Jesus clearly is from heaven, and there is his heavenly father, while the rabbis, pharisees are all of earth and serve the kingdom of man, roman perhaps.

Matthew uses heaven when Christ got baptized, the sermon on the mount is HIGHLY centralized on heaven and the beatitudes open and end with references to heaven. The lords prayer again emphasizes on father in heaven. Almost all parables in Matthew are centered on the kingdom of God.

He even ended his gospel, on Christ's authority which is shown to be on "heaven and earth" both. Genesis sees God the father having the same authority and uses the same word-pair to describe it.

Imo, who Christ is and where he belongs, is priority for Matthew. Jesus alone knows the heavenly father, he alone preaches the kingdom of heaven, he is the only one for whom the heaven opens up and the heavenly voice speaks, he is the only one who has the seen the father. He is the only one who chooses to reveal this heavenly father to whomever he wants. Jesus goes back to heaven. Jesus' identity is heaven.

So the phrase heavenly father, just points back to the centrality of Christ and his role as the savior, because according to Matthew, no one can know the father except whom the son chooses to reveal it to Mt 11:27. I think Matthew uses it as a device to force back his point that not only is Christ from heaven, he is the only way to get to God. Obviously, both heaven and God are very important entities for the jews...perhaps that is also the reason why Mark and luke, both written by gentile authors miss this emphasis. Matthew is an insider to the jewish mindset, mark and Luke are not.

my 2 cents.

[Jac3510]

Late reply, I know, but thanks for the thoughts. There are some good deas here. I actually noticed heaven's association with father because I am teaching through tSotM right now. I especially appreciate your contrast to Luke and Mark being gentile authors. That's what I've been trying to figure out. Why Matthew but not Luke or Mark? That seems to get close to the heart of it.

So let me pick your brain further. I see Matthew as presenting Jesus as the Messiah promised in the OT, and especially in answering the question for Jewish believers as to if their Messiah had come, why they were not living in the Kingdom the OT seemed to promise. As such, the Kingdom is featured prominently in that gospel. So on the view you've suggested here, how would you connect the heaven/earth dichotomy with God's being our heavenly Father relative to Jesus being the Davidic King? I have some guesses where you might go, and I have some of my own ideas, but I'd like to hear yours first, if I may.