Isaiah 9:6 is the only biblical text that might seem to use the word “father” with reference to Christ. The expression “Everlasting Father” in the King James Version (kjv) translates the Hebrew ´ábî`ad. Based on the kjv rendering, Oneness Pentecostals have argued that Jesus Christ is God the Father in the flesh. In this brief article, I will explain why this interpretation is incorrect. I will not be arguing that the kjv translation is incorrect, although there is a possibly better translation, but that Oneness Pentecostals have misunderstood the significance of the name in context.

The following table shows that the Hebrew ´ábî`ad in Isaiah 9:6, part of the Messiah’s compound name, does not describe the Messiah as “Eternal Father,” but rather describes the Messiah’s divine Father as eternal. Most likely the Hebrew should be translated literally as “(my) father is eternal,” although “father of eternity” (in the sense of a father whose nature is eternal) is also a possible interpretation of the name. I have omitted the names Abiathar and Abner because they have different vowel points with Abi- than the other names. I have also omitted the names Abi (since it has no second component) and Abi-albon (since unlike all the other names, it is hyphenated).

The Hebrew Old Testament has about two dozen names in which Abi- (which means either “father of” or “[my] father is”) is the first part, e.g., Abigail (1 Sam. 25, etc., “father of joy” or “my father is joy,” a woman’s name), Abihud (1 Chron. 8:3, “father of majesty” or “my father is majesty”), etc. Hebrew scholars have interpreted these names in two different ways.

The more familiar interpretation translates Abigail to mean “father of joy” and interprets the second part as a Hebraic way of expressing a description (i.e., “father of joy” means joyous father). Reading Isaiah 9:6 this way, the kjv translators interpreted ´ábî`ad to mean “father of eternity,” that is, Eternal (or Everlasting) Father. This is a possible translation, but if correct it would be describing the Messiah’s father, not the Messiah himself, as “Everlasting Father.” I will explain why shortly.

The alternative interpretation translates Abigail to mean “(my) father is joy,” an interpretation which would seem to mean essentially the same thing (“my joyous father”) if the second noun is descriptive. On this way of construing the name, ´ábî `ad in Isaiah 9:6 would translate “(my) father is eternity.”¹

Either way, in most or all cases these names must be descriptive of the name-bearer’s father, not of the name-bearer himself (or herself!). For example, obviously the name Abigail expresses the idea that her father is joyous over her, not that she is a joyous father. Other similarly formed names appear to mean that the father of the named individual is strong (Abihail), majestic (Abihud), delighted (Abinoam), good (Abitub), and so on. The names Abijah and Abimael must mean that the named individual honors Jehovah (Jah) or God (El) as father.

In short, Isaiah 9:6 does not refer to the Messiah as “Everlasting Father,” but rather describes the Messiah’s divine Father as eternal. This does not mean that the Messiah is not God, as he is called such both in Isaiah 9:6 (“mighty God”) and in Isaiah 7:14, but that he is not the person revealed more specifically in the New Testament as God the Father.

NOTES