HEBREW WORD STUDY – BELOVED – ABBA אבא

Matthew 6:9: “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.”
It has been very much ingrained in our Western culture that God is a Father, ie., a male father figure. This is not so in the Semitic mind. God is neither male nor female. God favors neither male nor female: Galatians 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” In heaven there is no marriage: Matthew 22:30 “For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.” That word marriage in the Aramaic is nesav which means to take. This is taking in the sense of ownership and possession, hence it is used when a man says; “I am taking myself a bride.” This is not the idea of marriage in the legal sense, but in the sense of a sexual relationship, a physical bonding where the two become as one.” In other words there is no sex in heaven.
If there is no sex in heaven then there will be no male or female sexual organs. In Semitic mindset and even in much of Western mindset (for the time being) a male and female are defined by their sexual organs of which God has none.
Jesus spoke this in Aramaic and the Aramaic word used is Abba. Abba has a very broad range of meanings. It could mean father. It could mean originator, it could also mean a state of growth and development, a scholar. Its Semitic root has the idea of branches growing from the trunk of a tree. In other words the emphasis of the word is not on a sexual identity but on a relationship that has an intimate attachment. As this pictures a very deep intimate relationship like an arm to a shoulder the word Abba became a word used to express deep affection and love. Hence, when the first century Semitic people heard the word “Our Father or Abba” they did not hear a reference to a male figure but to a beloved.
Rather than beginning our prayers with “Dear Father in heaven” would we dare begin our prayers with “My beloved who is in heaven?” When Jesus gave us the Lord’s prayer in Aramaic, that is exactly the way He instructed us to pray.”