ABBA. - 1. An Aramaic term, the emphatic state of 'ab, "father," which occurs in a vocative sense in the New Testament, always followed by ὁ πνεῦρ, in Rom. 8, 5 and Gal. 4, 6; Mk. 14, 36 (v. 'AB). The meaning of 'abbá is "my father," in accordance with Aramaic usage (G. Dalman, P. Joüon), reflected in the Fourth Gospel (8, 18 ff.; 14, 6. 11. 20). The Greek term (in the nominative) is the literal translation of the Aramaic. According to J. Knabenbauer, the Greek interpretation was added by St. Peter in oral catechesis, later reported by St. Mark; others see in it a gloss by the evangelist, but in that case it would be introduced by an explanatory formula as in Jn. 7, 34 (cf. 5, 41).
The abbá (ὁ πνεῦρ), which is found in St. Paul, according to Th. Zahn, would be a reference to the official prayer of the Pater noster, recited in Aramaic in the earliest times. The origin of the formula can be attributed either to the influence exercised by the practice established in the Gentile-Christian churches, which added to the name that Jesus gave to God the corresponding Greek, or to the impulse of tenderness toward Him who adopts us as his sons: "Father, you who are the Father!" M.-J. Lagrange considers it a traditional ejaculatory prayer of Christians.
Bibliography
Vincenzo M. Jacono
2. A title that precedes the name of certain doctors of the Mišnah, and is to be translated "father" or "my father." According to Maimonides, it is equivalent to Rabbi (my teacher). It also occurs as a proper name both in the period of the Tannaim (v.) and in the following period of the Amoraim (v.). In Babylonia it is often contracted with the title Rabbi (teacher), giving rise to forms such as Rabá, Rabbá. According to W. Bacher, the term would have arisen from an abbreviation of Abraham; an unlikely hypothesis in the face of expressions such as "father in wisdom" or "father in years."
Bibliography3 works
Eugenio Zolli