God the Father

=== Old Testament ===
According to [[Marianne Thompson]], in the [[Old Testament]], God is called 'Father' with a unique sense of familiarity. In addition to the sense in which God is 'Father' to all men because he created the world (and in that sense 'fathered' the world), the same God is also uniquely the law-giver to his [[chosen people]]. He maintains a special, [[covenant (Biblical)|covenantal]] father–child relationship with the people, giving them the [[Shabbat]], stewardship of his [[prophecy|prophecies]], and a unique heritage in the things of God, calling Israel 'my son' because he delivered the descendants of Jacob out of slavery in Egypt <ref>{{bibleverse|Hosea|11:1|NIV}}</ref> according to his covenants and oaths to their fathers, [[Abraham]], [[Isaac]] and [[Jacob]]. In the [[Hebrew Bible]], Isaiah 63:16 (JP) reads: "For You are our father, for Abraham did not know us, neither did Israel recognize us; You, O [YHWH], are our father; our redeemer of old is your name." To God, according to Judaism, is attributed the fatherly role of protector. He is titled the Father of the poor, of the orphan and the widow, their guarantor of justice. He is also titled the Father of the king, as the teacher and helper over the judge of Israel.<ref>Marianne Meye Thompson, ''The promise of the Father: Jesus and God in the New Testament'' ch. 2 God as Father in the Old Testament and Second Temple Judaism p.35 2000. "Christian theologians have often accentuated the distinctiveness of the portrait of God as Father in the New Testament on the basis of an alleged discontinuity."</ref>

According to Alon Goshen-Gottstein, in the Old Testament "Father" is generally a [[metaphor]]; it is not a proper [[Name of God in Judaism|name for God]] but rather one of many titles by which Jews speak of and to God. According to Mark Sameth, references to God the Father convulsing in labor, giving birth, and suckling (Deuteronomy 32:13, 18) hint to a priestly belief, noted in the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries by [[Guillaume Postel]] and [[:it:Michelangelo_Lanci|Michelangelo Lanci]] respectively, that “God the Father” is a dual-gendered deity. <ref>{{Cite book|last=Sameth|first=Mark|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ozzpDwAAQBAJ&q=%22The+Name:+A+History+of+the+Dual-Gendered+Hebrew+Name+for+God%22|title=The Name: A History of the Dual-Gendered Hebrew Name for God|publisher=Wipf and Stock|year=2020|isbn=978-1-5326-9384-7|pages=127n71}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Wilkinson|first=Robert|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1xyoBgAAQBAJ&dq=%22earlier+form+1551;+final+state+1566%22&pg=PA337|title=Tetragrammaton: Western Christians and the Hebrew Name of God.|publisher=Brill|year=2015|isbn=9789004288171|location=Boston|pages=337}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Postel|first=Guillaume|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EmkytAEACAAJ|title=Le thrésor des prophéties de l'univers|year=1969|isbn=9789024702039|pages=211|language=French|author-link=Guillaume Postel}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Lanci|first=Michelangelo|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-q4WAAAAQAAJ&dq=Paralipomeni+Alla+Illustrazione+Della+Sagra+Scrittura&pg=PR15|title=Paralipomeni alla illustrazione della sagra Scrittura|publisher=Dondey-Dupre|year=1845|isbn=978-1274016911|edition=Facsimile of the first|pages=100–113|language=Italian}}</ref> In Christianity fatherhood is taken in a more literal and substantive sense, and is explicit about the need for the Son as a means of accessing the Father, making for a more [[Metaphysics|metaphysical]] rather than metaphorical interpretation.<ref name=metaphor>{{cite web|url=http://www.elijah-interfaith.org/uploads/media/god_the_father_in_rabbinic_judaism_and_christianity_01.pdf|title=God the Father in Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity: Transformed Background or Common Ground?, Alon Goshen-Gottstein. The Elijah Interfaith Institute, first published in Journal of Ecumenical Studies, 38:4, Spring 2001|website=elijah-interfaith.org|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6CyZ7FLra?url=http://www.elijah-interfaith.org/uploads/media/god_the_father_in_rabbinic_judaism_and_christianity_01.pdf|archive-date=17 December 2012}}</ref>