By Schubert Ogden
To what extent is "the memory, preserved at a few points in the New Testament (Mark 14: 36, Rom. 8: 15, Gal. 4: 6), that Jesus called God abba" properly said to be a "memory," as distinct from a christological formulation?
If the conclusion to be drawn from the preservation of this "memory" is that his first followers "believed that Jesus enjoyed a special relationship to God," the reasoning is obviously capable of being reversed, so as to conclude that their believing this about him accounts for their so remembering him. Even if it were true not only that Jesus' first followers remembered him as having called God abba, but also that he in fact did exactly that, the reason for their preserving the memory could still have been their christological belief, instead of the other way around.
And this seems all the more likely if their interest was not in Jesus' special relationship to God "as a matter of speculation but in what it meant for them," insofar as "they felt themelves drawn into the relationship" and could also "address God as abba."
(All quotations are from R. Pregeant, Engaging the New Testament: 132 f.)
30 April 1995