If Ye Shall Call Me Father

One thing I have not quite mastered is brevity. I will attempt it here. Many Christians believe that it was only during and since the time of Jesus' mortal ministry that God was addressed as "Father." I will share a few insights for the reader to contemplate.

First, a simple grammar lesson. In Hebrew if two nouns are combined, the first of the pair could be seen as belonging to the second, as in "Ben Elohim", literally 'Son God', but in English we would say "Son of God". However, do note that the functional word "of" is explicitly stated in English. In Hebrew it is implied. Therefore "Ben Elohim" in Hebrew can mean either 'Son of God' or 'Son God', as in "the Son who is a God".

Genesis 49:25 (King James Version)

Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb:

There is an alternative way of reading the exact same words in Hebrew, but there is also something that the translators leave out:

Because of El [God] thy Father, for He helpeth thee and the Almighty, and blesseth thee with the blessings of heaven above, blessings of deep lying below, blessings of breasts and of womb.

Two things stand out: (1) That the same words may be read not as "God of thy father" but as "God thy Father"; (2) that this God who helps Joseph also helps the Almighty. Now, this latter point, that El, God, blesses the Almighty is undeniable in the Hebrew. In Biblical Hebrew the accusative marker "et" was placed before the direct object of the verb. Confusing? Okay, grammar typically is not a subject that gets most hearts pumping faster, except out of exacerbation. Let me show you from Genesis 1:1:

In council Elohim had fashioned "et" the heavens and "et" the earth.

Or in the King James Version:

In the beginning God created "et" the heavens and "et" the earth.

See how the Hebrew "et" marks the object of the verb? Well, Genesis 49:25 clearly, unequivocally states "God thy Father, for He helpeth thee and "et" the Almighty." I suspect the reason the translators phrased this as "and by the Almighty who shall bless thee" is because the translators, believing Medieval Trinitarian notions, could not fathom how "El" would help "Shaddai", 'Almighty', when they believed that "El" 'God' and "Shaddai" 'Almighty' were the same person. In this context, "El" is "The Father" and "Shaddai", 'Almighty' is "The Son".

Bearing in mind that "El", 'God' is possibly referred to here as "God thy Father", consider both Jeremiah 3:4

Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My Father, thou art the Guide of my youths?

 and Malachi 2:10:

Have we not all One Father? Hath not One El ['God'] created us? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?

The New Testament was compiled in the fourth century AD. At that time there was an agreement among the various factions that worked on the canon that if one Christian region held certain books to be Scripture, but the council in Nicea could not unanimously approve that particular book, the Book could be included in New Testaments to be used in that particular region. By the year AD 400 the extra books were ordered literally to be pulled off the beautifully crated New Testament tomes. One version, the Alexandrinus, a fourth century New Testament, still has 1 Clement included in The New Testament. Here is 1 Clement 4:11:

Say unto the children of my people, though your sins should reach from earth to heaven; and though they shall be redder than scarlet, and blacker than sackcloth: yet if ye shall turn to Me with all your heart, and shall call Me Father, I will hearken to you, as to a holy people. 

It is hard to fathom that such a beautiful Scripture could have been lost to Christendom.

Jesus taught us how to pray: "Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name." (Matthew 6:9) Now, when our Lord Jesus agonized on the cross, He cried out to His Father. Bearing in mind the relationship between the terms "El", 'God', and "Father", consider now His actual words, Matthew 27:46:

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? 

The difference between "El" and "Eli" is that the -i suffix which means "my" is added to the noun at the end. So "Eli" literally means 'God-my', though in English we say "My God". The passages I have shared should be sufficient to show that prior to the Babylonian Captivity the Hebrews understood "El", 'God', to be our Father, and the Hebrews would refer to "El" as "Father." When The Son came to earth He taught us to pray to our Father that very way, "Our Father". So is it not surprising to see that The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, continues the very practice known in The Bible prior to the Babylonian captivity, that of calling "God" as "Father"? 2 Nephi 31:11-12:

(11) And The Father said: Repent ye, repent ye, and be baptized in the name of My Beloved Son. (12) And also, the voice of The Son came unto me, saying: He that is baptized in my name, to him will The Father give The Holy Ghost, like unto Me; wherefore, follow Me, and do the things which ye have seen Me do.

I will wrap up with those moving words from The Lord as He hung, battered and humiliated, being mocked, Luke 23:34 

Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.

and the great observation of the Prophet Abinadi, whose name actually means "My Father is Present", Mosiah 15:8-9:

(8) And thus God breaketh the bands of death, having gained the victory over death; giving The Son power to make Intercession for the children of men--(9) Having ascended into heaven, having the bowels of mercy; being filled with compassion towards the children of men; standing betwixt them an justice; having broken the bands of death, taken upon Himself their iniquity and their transgressions, having redeemed them, and satisfied the demands of justice.

Abinadi gave his life for the witness that God, The Father, gained the victory over death by empowering and sending God, The Son, to earth, to perform the great Intercession or Atonement. Notice how Jacob, in Genesis 49:25 said that El, God, would help Joseph and Shaddai?  Well, in The Book of Mormon, Mosiah 3:5 an angel declared to King Benjamin the following:

For behold, the time cometh, and is not far distant, that with power, The Lord Omnipotent who reigneth, who was, and is from all eternity to all eternity, shall come down from heaven among the children of men, and shall dwell in a tabernacle of clay, and shall go forth amongst men, working mighty miracles, such as healing the sick, raising the dead, causing the lame to walk, the blind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear, and curing all manner of disease.

What is beautiful about this verse, among so many things, is that King Benjamin reports that "The Lord Omnipotent" shall come down. Well, "Shaddai" in Hebrew gets translated to English as "Almighty", but English also uses the French version, "Omnipotent" from time to time. So here we have yet another correspondence between the Hebrew Bible and The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. How ever did this come about?

Now, I realize that no one is obligated to see these scriptures as I have laid out. Certainly alternative explanations abound as to what the Hebrew implies, why 1 Clement was removed from The New Testament, why The Book of Mormon states what it does. How ever you, the careful reader, choose to interpret these passages, do bear in mind what a living Apostle, Elder Scott, stated, "We talk to God through prayer; He most often communicates back to us through His written Word." Also bear in mind that everything I shared with you, even if you arrive at a different conclusion, is actually textual.