Jesus's "Call No Man Father" Has a HIDDEN Meaning — and it is GENIUS | Matthew 23:9

Grab the 52 Weeks of Bible Investigation: https://www.discernmentmadeclear.com This video examines Matthew 23:9, where Jesus says "call no man your father upon the earth," and asks whether the Catholic practice of calling a priest "Father" violates that command. The study works through the Greek grammar of Matthew 23:8 through 12 and shows that verse 9 uses an active verb while verses 8 and 10 use passive verbs, meaning Jesus addresses the ambition of the leader and the deference of the follower separately. It surveys every place in Scripture where a human being is called father in a spiritual or honorific sense, including three times in the same chapter by Jesus himself, and examines Paul's claim in 1 Corinthians 4:15 that he became a spiritual father to the Corinthians. It then traces the actual historical development of the title "Father" in Christian use, from the early church through Egyptian monasticism to modern parish practice, and applies the command to Protestant and Catholic settings alike. Where the evidence is contested or where scholars disagree, the video says so directly rather than overstating the case. What's covered in this video: The setting of Matthew 23 on the Tuesday of Passion Week, delivered in the outer courts of the Jerusalem temple as the last public teaching before the Olivet Discourse. The "seat of Moses" in Matthew 23:2 as a literal synagogue chair, including the carved basalt seat excavated at Chorazin in Galilee in the 1920s, now held in the Israel Museum, with the honest note that the chair dates to the third or fourth century and postdates Jesus. The behaviors Jesus condemns in Matthew 23:5 through 7, including broadened phylacteries drawn from Deuteronomy 6, enlarged tzitzit tassels commanded in Numbers 15, the best seats at feasts and synagogues, and the doubled greeting "Rabbi, Rabbi." The Greek phrase pros to theathēnai tois anthrōpois, meaning "to be seen by men," which shares a root with the English word theater. The Hebrew root rav behind the title Rabbi, meaning great or abundant, producing rabbi as "my great one," along with the scholarly debate over whether an ordained rabbinate existed before the destruction of the temple in AD 70, and the fact that Hillel the Elder is generally not given the title. The grammatical structure of the three prohibitions, where mē klēthēte in verse 8 and mēde klēthēte in verse 10 are passive forms meaning "do not be called," while mē kalesēte in verse 9 is active and means "do not call." The Greek noun kathēgētēs in verse 10, a hapax legomenon appearing nowhere else in the New Testament, meaning a private or salaried tutor, used by Dionysius of Halicarnassus of Plato as the tutor of Aristotle and attested in Egyptian papyri and a Galatian funerary inscription. The textual variant in Matthew 23:8, where the manuscripts behind the King James and New King James read "One is your Teacher, the Christ" while the earliest manuscripts read simply "One is your teacher" using didaskalos. The title Av Beit Din, meaning "father of the house of judgment," as the second-ranking office of the Sanhedrin, and Abba as an honorific attached to sages such as Abba Saul and Abba Jose ben Hanan. Every counter-text where Scripture uses "father" of humans, including Matthew 23:30 and 32, Matthew 15:4, Luke 16:24, Acts 7:2, Acts 22:1, Romans 4:16, Genesis 4:20 and 21, Genesis 45:8, Judges 17:10, 2 Kings 2:12, and 1 John 2:13. Paul's distinction in 1 Corinthians 4:15 between myrious paidagōgous, ten thousand custodians, and the few who are fathers, written while dismantling the personality factions described in 1 Corinthians 1:12. The historical path of the title, from papa used of bishops generally, to its narrowing to the bishop of Rome by the fifth century, to abba and amma among the Egyptian desert monastics, to abbot, to Benedict's rule, to the Franciscan and Dominican friars, to recent universal parish use. The application to Protestant practice, where titles such as Pastor, Doctor, Reverend, Bishop, Apostle, and Prophet can function the same way, and the closing appeal to Ephesians 3:14 and 15. Mentioned in this video: Matthew 23, Matthew 23:9, Matthew 15:4, Jesus, Moses, Hillel the Elder, Paul, Stephen, Peter, Apollos, Cephas, John, Abraham, Elijah, Elisha, Joseph, Pharaoh, Micah, Jabal, Jubal, Benedict, Plato, Aristotle, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Jerusalem, the Jerusalem temple, Mount of Olives, Chorazin, Galilee, Israel Museum, Egypt, Galatia, Rome, Corinth, Gethsemane, Sanhedrin, Pharisees, scribes, Av Beit Din, Abba Saul, Abba Jose ben Hanan, rabbi, rav, kathēgētēs, didaskalos, paidagōgos, abba, amma, abbot, papa, pope, phylacteries, tzitzit, Seat of Moses, King James Version, New King James Version, Deuteronomy 6, Numbers 15, Luke 16, Acts 7, Acts 22, Romans 4, Genesis 4, Genesis 45, Judges 17, 2 Kings 2, 1 Corinthians 1, 1 Corinthians 4, Galatians 3, 1 John 2, Ephesians 3, Franciscans, Dominicans, Second Temple Judaism.