Abba

Abba is a Syriac and Chaldee word meaning father, used in intimate address to a parent. It appears three times in the New Testament—in Jesus's prayer at Gethsemane (Mark 14:36), in Paul's letter to the Romans (8:15), and in Galatians (4:6)—always paired with its Greek equivalent ho Patēr. The term expresses warm filial affection and confident trust rather than formal address.

Paul uses Abba in both theological passages to describe the Spirit-enabled cry of adopted children of God, contrasting it with the spirit of slavery and fear. The word passed into ecclesiastical usage as the root of the Latin abbot, the title for the head of a monastery.