What does πατήρ (patḗr) mean in the Bible?
pater names a father, and in the New Testament it ranges from ordinary human fathers and ancestors to the personal name by which Jesus reveals God as Father. The word must therefore be read with care.
Greek · G3962
πατήρ
A "father" (literally or figuratively, near or more remote)
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through the Connect page. Screenshots are helpful.
πατήρ G3962
Pronunciation patḗr
What does πατήρ (patḗr) mean in the Bible?
pater names a father, and in the New Testament it ranges from ordinary human fathers and ancestors to the personal name by which Jesus reveals God as Father. The word must therefore be read with care.
Reader summary
Full entry for πατήρ (G3962) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G3962?
The BSB source-word alignment has 414 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include father (305), fathers (44), [the] Father (19), Father’s (18), a father (6).
Where does πατήρ (patḗr) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 2:22. Its strongest book concentrations include John (136), Matthew (63), Luke (56), Acts (35).
Are there verse guides for πατήρ (patḗr)?
This entry includes 5 verse guides that explain exact original-language forms in context.
What This Word Actually Means
Pater names a father, and in the New Testament it ranges from ordinary human fathers and ancestors to the personal name by which Jesus reveals God as Father. The word must therefore be read with care. Sometimes it speaks of earthly parentage, as in household instruction. Sometimes it speaks of Israel's forefathers. In Jesus' teaching it becomes central to prayer, providence, sonship, and access to God.
Matthew 11:27 and John 14:6 keep this from becoming generic religious sentiment: the Father is known through the Son, and no one comes to the Father except through Him. Romans 8:15 shows believers brought by the Spirit into adopted address. For pastoral use, pater opens both comfort and accountability: God is Father through Christ, and earthly fatherhood is called to reflect, not replace, His care.
lexical_rangeCanonical synthesisPastoral application
How the Bible Uses It
The selected passages move from prayer to Christ's unique revelation of the Father, then to adoption and household responsibility. pater is not a vague metaphor for warmth; in the New Testament it is governed by the Father-Son relation and by God's gracious adoption of believers.
- Matt.6.9
So then, this is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.
Jesus teaches His disciples to address God as Father in prayer. The address is intimate, but it is reverent, since the Father's name is to be hallowed and His will sought.
- Matt.11.27
All things have been entrusted to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.
The Father and the Son are mutually known in a unique relation, and the Son chooses to reveal the Father. This guards Christian use of Father language from being detached from Christ's revelation.
- John.5.17
But Jesus answered them, “To this very day My Father is at His work, and I too am working.”
Jesus' reference to My Father intensifies the conflict because His work is bound to the Father's work. The verse shows that Father language in John's Gospel carries claims about Jesus' identity and authority.
- John.14.6
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
Access to the Father is explicitly through Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life. The term Father is therefore pastoral comfort only in the path opened by the Son.
- Rom.8.15
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery that returns you to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption to sonship, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
Believers cry Abba, Father by the Spirit of adoption. The address is not natural human possession but a gift received through redemption and the Spirit's work.
- Eph.6.4
Fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath; instead, bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Pater also names earthly fathers who are warned not to provoke their children. The household use reminds readers that the same word can carry ordinary family meaning and ethical responsibility.
Passage contextBook context
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders It father 305× Matthew 2:22, Matthew 4:21, Matthew 4:22, Matthew 5:16
fathers 44× Matthew 23:30, Matthew 23:32, Luke 1:55, Luke 1:72
[the] Father 19× John 1:14, John 5:37, Romans 4:11, Romans 4:16
Father’s 18× Matthew 16:27, Matthew 26:29, Mark 8:38, Luke 2:49
a father 6× Matthew 10:21, Mark 13:12, Romans 4:17, 2 Corinthians 6:18
patriarchs 4× John 7:22, Romans 9:5, Romans 11:28, Romans 15:8
[his] father 3× Matthew 10:37, Matthew 15:4, Mark 7:10
[as our] father 2× Matthew 3:9, Luke 3:8
[a] Father 1× 1 Peter 1:17
[by his] father 1× Hebrews 12:7
[he is also the] father 1× Romans 4:12
[him] 1× Luke 15:12
[his] 1× John 8:44
[them] 1× Acts 7:45
[with his] father 1× Philippians 2:22
ancestor 1× Hebrews 7:10
fathers [did] 1× Acts 7:51
forefather 1× Romans 4:1
forefathers 1× 1 Corinthians 10:1
of [the] fathers 1× Luke 1:17
parents 1× Hebrews 11:23
Show sample aligned rows
Matthew 2:22 πατρὸς to father Noun - Genitive Masculine Singular Matthew 3:9 Πατέρα to [as our] father Noun - Accusative Masculine Singular Matthew 4:21 πατρὸς to father Noun - Genitive Masculine Singular Matthew 4:22 πατέρα to father Noun - Accusative Masculine Singular Matthew 5:16 πατέρα to Father Noun - Accusative Masculine Singular Matthew 5:45 Πατρὸς to Father Noun - Genitive Masculine Singular Matthew 5:48 Πατὴρ to Father Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular Matthew 6:1 Πατρὶ to Father Noun - Dative Masculine Singular Matthew 6:4 Πατήρ to Father Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular Matthew 6:6 Πατρί to Father Noun - Dative Masculine Singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Matthew 2:22
Aligned rows 414
Books represented 26
Matthew 63 Mark 18 Luke 56 John 136 Acts 35 Romans 15 1 Corinthians 6 2 Corinthians 5 Galatians 5 Ephesians 11 Philippians 4 Colossians 5 1 Thessalonians 5 2 Thessalonians 3 1 Timothy 2 2 Timothy 1 Titus 1 Philemon 1 Hebrews 9 James 4 1 Peter 3 2 Peter 2 1 John 14 2 John 4 Jude 1 Revelation 5
Source forms
Πατὴρ 58x Patēr Matthew 5:48, Matthew 6:8, Matthew 6:14, Matthew 6:15
Πατέρα 55x Patera Matthew 3:9, Matthew 11:27, Matthew 26:53, Luke 3:8
πατέρα 38x patera Matthew 4:22, Matthew 5:16, Matthew 8:21, Matthew 10:37
Πατρός 38x Patros Matthew 7:21, Matthew 10:32, Matthew 10:33, Matthew 11:27
Πατρὸς 36x Patros Matthew 5:45, Matthew 10:20, Matthew 10:29, Matthew 13:43
Πατήρ 31x Patēr Matthew 6:4, Matthew 6:6, Matthew 6:18, Matthew 11:26
πατέρες 24x pateres Luke 6:23, Luke 6:26, Luke 11:47, John 4:20
πατρὸς 20x patros Matthew 2:22, Matthew 4:21, Matthew 10:35, Mark 11:10
Parsing patterns
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular 110x Matthew 5:48, Matthew 6:4, Matthew 6:6, Matthew 6:8
Noun - Genitive Masculine Singular 100x Matthew 2:22, Matthew 4:21, Matthew 5:45, Matthew 7:21
Noun - Accusative Masculine Singular 94x Matthew 3:9, Matthew 4:22, Matthew 5:16, Matthew 8:21
Noun - Dative Masculine Singular 33x Matthew 6:1, Matthew 6:6, Matthew 6:18, Matthew 15:5
Noun - Vocative Masculine Singular 24x Matthew 6:9, Matthew 11:25, Matthew 26:39, Matthew 26:42
Noun - Nominative Masculine Plural 18x Luke 6:23, Luke 6:26, Luke 11:47, John 4:20
Noun - Genitive Masculine Plural 14x Matthew 23:30, Matthew 23:32, Luke 1:17, Luke 1:72
Noun - Accusative Masculine Plural 12x Luke 1:55, Acts 3:25, Acts 7:12, Acts 7:19
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Let Jesus define the Father's character and access to Him, especially for readers whose earthly father experience was painful.
- Use earthly fatherhood applications as accountable stewardship under the Lord, not as an automatic analogy that explains God.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim that pater always refers to God the Father; the New Testament also uses it for human fathers and ancestors.
- Do not claim that God is savingly known as Father apart from the Son's revelation and the Spirit's adoption.
Key Verse and Form Guides
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
John 1:14 Noun Genitive Singular Masculine
πατρός), patros a "father" (literally or figuratively, near or more remote) The form reinforces a relational reading of the phrase and helps the reader hear the glory as connected to the Father's presence or source, while leaving the larger meaning to the verse context. Read verse guide John 1:18 Noun Genitive Singular Masculine
πατρός, patros a "father" (literally or figuratively, near or more remote) The form strengthens the picture of close relational access: the Son is depicted as being in the Father's bosom, which supports the claim that he uniquely reveals God. Read verse guide John 10:30 Noun Nominative Singular Masculine
πατὴρ pater a "father" (literally or figuratively, near or more remote) The nominative noun names the Father within the subject of Jesus' unity statement, not as a separate clause or detached topic. Read verse guide John 14:6 Noun Accusative Singular Masculine
πατέρα, patera a "father" (literally or figuratively, near or more remote) The form clarifies what receives or completes the action in the local phrase. Read verse guide Matthew 5:16 Noun Accusative Singular Masculine
πατέρα patera a "father" (literally or figuratively, near or more remote) names the Father as the goal of the purpose clause. Read verse guide Evidence Summary
Greek word. Denotes biological parent, ancestor, originator, authority figure, or God—context determines whether literal or metaphorical application.
Source Gloss
a "father" (literally or figuratively, near or more remote)
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 419 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Matthew 2:22 Noun Genitive Singular Masculine
πατρὸς patrov
father, Father, ancestor
Read verse Matthew 3:9 Noun Accusative Singular Masculine
Πατέρα patera
father, Father, ancestor
Read verse Matthew 4:21 Noun Genitive Singular Masculine
πατρὸς patrov
father, Father, ancestor
Read verse Matthew 4:22 Noun Accusative Singular Masculine
πατέρα patera
father, Father, ancestor
Read verse patera
father, Father, ancestor
Read verse Matthew 5:45 Noun Genitive Singular Masculine
πατρὸς patrov
father, Father, ancestor
Read verse Matthew 5:48 Noun Nominative Singular Masculine
πατὴρ pathr
father, Father, ancestor
Read verse Matthew 6:1 Noun Dative Singular Masculine
πατρὶ patri
father, Father, ancestor
Read verse Matthew 6:4 Noun Nominative Singular Masculine
πατήρ pathr
father, Father, ancestor
Read verse Matthew 6:6 Noun Dative Singular Masculine
πατρί patri
father, Father, ancestor
Read verse Matthew 6:6 Noun Nominative Singular Masculine
πατήρ pathr
father, Father, ancestor
Read verse Matthew 6:8 Noun Nominative Singular Masculine
πατὴρ pathr
father, Father, ancestor
Read verse Matthew 6:9 Noun Singular Masculine
Πάτερ pater
father, Father, ancestor
Read verse Matthew 6:14 Noun Nominative Singular Masculine
πατὴρ pathr
father, Father, ancestor
Read verse Matthew 6:15 Noun Nominative Singular Masculine
πατὴρ pathr
father, Father, ancestor
Read verse Matthew 6:18 Noun Dative Singular Masculine
πατρί patri
father, Father, ancestor
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
Grammatical Forms
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 10 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Form patterns 10 Aligned forms 413 Case pattern Nominative (130) Number pattern Singular (360)
Nominative · Singular · Masculine Matt 5:48 · Matt 6:4 · Matt 6:6 · Matt 6:8 · Matt 6:14 · Matt 6:15 · Matt 6:18 · Matt 6:26 · Matt 6:32 · Matt 7:11 · Matt 10:21 · Matt 11:26 · Matt 11:27 · Matt 15:13 · Matt 16:17 · Matt 18:35 110×
Nominative · Plural · Masculine Luke 6:23 · Luke 6:26 · Luke 11:47 · John 4:20 · John 6:31 · John 6:49 · John 6:58 · Acts 7:11 · Acts 7:15 · Acts 7:39 · Acts 7:45 · Acts 7:51 · Acts 7:52 · Acts 15:10 · Rom 9:5 · 1 Cor 10:1 20×
Genitive · Singular · Masculine Matt 2:22 · Matt 4:21 · Matt 5:45 · Matt 7:21 · Matt 10:20 · Matt 10:29 · Matt 10:32 · Matt 10:33 · Matt 10:35 · Matt 11:27 · Matt 12:50 · Matt 13:43 · Matt 16:27 · Matt 18:10 · Matt 18:14 · Matt 18:19 100×
Genitive · Plural · Masculine Matt 23:30 · Matt 23:32 · Luke 1:17 · Luke 1:72 · Luke 11:48 · John 7:22 · Acts 3:13 · Acts 5:30 · Acts 7:32 · Acts 7:38 · Acts 7:45 · Acts 22:14 · Rom 15:8 · Heb 11:23 14×
Dative · Singular · Masculine Matt 6:1 · Matt 6:6 · Matt 6:18 · Matt 15:5 · Mark 7:11 · Mark 7:12 · Luke 1:62 · Luke 9:42 · Luke 12:53 · Luke 15:12 · Luke 15:29 · John 4:21 · John 4:23 · John 8:38 · John 10:38 · John 14:10 33×
Dative · Plural · Masculine Acts 7:44 · Heb 1:1 · Heb 8:9 3×
Accusative · Singular · Masculine Matt 3:9 · Matt 4:22 · Matt 5:16 · Matt 8:21 · Matt 10:37 · Matt 11:27 · Matt 15:4 · Matt 15:6 · Matt 19:5 · Matt 19:19 · Matt 19:29 · Matt 23:9 · Matt 26:53 · Mark 1:20 · Mark 5:40 · Mark 7:10 93×
Accusative · Plural · Masculine Luke 1:55 · Acts 3:25 · Acts 7:12 · Acts 7:19 · Acts 13:17 · Acts 13:32 · Acts 13:36 · Acts 26:6 · Acts 28:25 · Rom 11:28 · 1 Cor 4:15 · Heb 12:9 12×
Vocative · Singular · Masculine Matt 6:9 · Matt 11:25 · Matt 26:39 · Matt 26:42 · Luke 10:21 · Luke 11:2 · Luke 15:12 · Luke 15:18 · Luke 15:21 · Luke 16:24 · Luke 16:27 · Luke 16:30 · Luke 22:42 · Luke 23:34 · Luke 23:46 · John 11:41 24×
Vocative · Plural · Masculine Acts 7:2 · Acts 22:1 · 1 John 2:13 · 1 John 2:14 4×
Selected Scripture Witnesses
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Additional Occurrences
Luke 11:1–4 Πάτερ patḗr
Father
New Testament Witnesses
Father
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 413 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
πατήρ is a primary word - no further derivation.
Why This Word Matters
Declares Jesus’ unique divine sonship.
Part of These Phrases
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
For the Preacher and Teacher
Pater becomes especially rich in the New Testament because Jesus does not merely teach a religious image for God; He reveals the Father from within the unique Father-Son relation. Matthew 6 invites disciples to pray with filial confidence, but Matthew 11 and John 14 define how that confidence is possible. The Father is known through the Son, and access to the Father comes through Jesus alone.
Romans 8 then brings believers into that address by the Spirit of adoption, so the cry Abba, Father is a grace of redemption rather than a universal assumption. Ephesians 6 keeps the lexical range grounded by using pater for earthly fathers who are accountable for how they nurture children. The word therefore opens comfort, doctrine, and ethics together: God is Father through Christ; believers are adopted by the Spirit; human fathers must not misuse delegated authority.
Anchor passage
Matt.11.27
Doctrinal connections
- G5207 Huios, Son: the Father is uniquely revealed by the Son, and Father language must be governed by that relation.
- G4151 Pneuma, Spirit: Romans 8 links the cry Father to the Spirit of adoption rather than to self-generated confidence.
- G5206 Huiothesia, adoption: believers address God as Father because they have received adoption through redemption.
- G4336 Proseuchomai, to pray: the Lord's Prayer teaches Father address as the posture of reverent dependence.
- G25 Agapao, to love: the Father's love is not abstract warmth but covenant mercy shown through the Son.
- G3811 Paideia, discipline or instruction: earthly fathers are called to form children under the Lord rather than provoke them.
Pater can refer to a male parent, an ancestor, a respected forefather, or God the Father. Context decides which sense is active. In the Gospels, possessive wording such as My Father, your Father, or our Father carries theological weight, especially when Jesus distinguishes His Sonship from the disciples' filial relation.
From Old to New Testament
Israel's Scriptures can speak of God as Father in covenantal and compassionate terms, while also honoring human fathers and ancestors. The New Testament intensifies this by centering the Father's self-disclosure in the Son and by naming believers' adoption through the Spirit. The continuity is covenant care; the climactic clarity is Christ's revelation of the Father.
Canonical synthesisPastoral application
Sources
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain