Calling God Father

Christians often ask followers of the Quran whether they object to using the term "Father" for God, aiming to highlight a perceived inconsistency between the portrayal of Jesus in the Gospels and the Quran. They argue that Jesus' use of "Father" in the Gospels suggests a theological divergence from the Quranic depiction of Jesus as a submitter to God.

Given that "Father" was a common term for God in Koine Greek, it would have been natural for early Christians to use this term in their writings. Similarly, in Arabic, the term for God is "Allah," a term still used by Christians in Egypt today. However, Christians who do not speak Arabic typically do not refer to God as "Allah" due to the term's specific cultural and religious connotations today despite this also being the term Jesus used when speaking Aramaic.

It is also worth emphasizing the linguistic and cultural context of Jesus' ministry. Jesus primarily addressed a Jewish audience and likely spoke Aramaic, the common language among Jews at that time, or Hebrew when quoting scripture, the language of the Old Testament. The Gospels were later written in Koine Greek, the lingua franca of the Eastern Mediterranean, to reach a broader audience, especially Gentiles who adopted Pauline Christianity. Thus, the term "Father" in the Greek texts is a translation of what Jesus might have originally said in Aramaic or Hebrew.

Additionally, there is an obvious theological bias for the New Testament to use the term Father for God so frequently compared to the infrequent use in the Old Testament. This is most likely an attempt to align the writings of the New Testament with the concept of the Trinity. Therefore, using "Father" to refer to God in English today is problematic, not because the term is inherently inappropriate, but because of the theological implications it has acquired.