Matthew 23:9
New International Version
And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.

New Living Translation
And don’t address anyone here on earth as ‘Father,’ for only God in heaven is your Father.

English Standard Version
And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.

Berean Standard Bible
And do not call anyone on earth your father, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.

Berean Literal Bible
And call no one your father on the earth; for One is your Father, who is in heaven.

King James Bible
And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.

New King James Version
Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.

New American Standard Bible
And do not call anyone on earth your father; for only One is your Father, He who is in heaven.

NASB 1995
“Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.

NASB 1977
“And do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.

Legacy Standard Bible
And do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.

Amplified Bible
Do not call anyone on earth [who guides you spiritually] your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.

Christian Standard Bible
Do not call anyone on earth your father, because you have one Father, who is in heaven.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Do not call anyone on earth your father, because you have one Father, who is in heaven.

American Standard Version
And call no man your father on the earth: for one is your Father, even he who is in heaven.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And you should not call yourselves “Father”, in the earth, for one is your Father who is in Heaven.

Contemporary English Version
Don't call anyone on earth your father. All of you have the same Father in heaven.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And call none your father upon earth; for one is your father, who is in heaven.

English Revised Version
And call no man your father on the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
And don't call anyone on earth your father, because you have only one Father, and he is in heaven.

Good News Translation
And you must not call anyone here on earth 'Father,' because you have only the one Father in heaven.

International Standard Version
And don't call anyone on earth 'Father,' because you have only one Father, the one in heaven.

Literal Standard Version
and you may not call [any] your father on the earth, for one is your Father, who is in the heavens,

Majority Standard Bible
And do not call anyone on earth your father, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.

New American Bible
Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father in heaven.

NET Bible
And call no one your 'father' on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.

New Revised Standard Version
And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father—the one in heaven.

New Heart English Bible
Call no man on the earth your father, for one is your Father, he who is in heaven.

Webster's Bible Translation
And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father who is in heaven.

Weymouth New Testament
And call no one on earth your Father, for One alone is your Father--the Heavenly Father.

World English Bible
Call no man on the earth your father, for one is your Father, he who is in heaven.

Young's Literal Translation
and ye may not call any your father on the earth, for one is your Father, who is in the heavens,

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Woes to Scribes and Pharisees
8But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. 9And do not call anyone on earth your father, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. 10Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Christ.…

Cross References
Matthew 6:9
So then, this is how you should pray: 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.

Matthew 7:11
So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

Matthew 23:10
Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Christ.


Treasury of Scripture

And call no man your father on the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.

call.

2 Kings 2:12
And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces.

2 Kings 6:21
And the king of Israel said unto Elisha, when he saw them, My father, shall I smite them? shall I smite them?

2 Kings 13:14
Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died. And Joash the king of Israel came down unto him, and wept over his face, and said, O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.

for.

Matthew 6:8,9,32
Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him…

Malachi 1:6
A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the LORD of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name?

Romans 8:14-17
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God…

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Matthew 23
1. Jesus admonishes the people to follow good doctrine, not bad examples
5. His disciples must beware of their ambition.
13. He denounces eight woes against their hypocrisy and blindness,
34. and prophesies of the destruction of Jerusalem.














(9) Call no man your father.--This also, under its Hebrew form of Abba, was one of the titles in which the scribes delighted. In its true use it embodied the thought that the relation of scholars and teachers was filial on the one side, paternal on the other; but precisely because it expressed so noble an idea was its merely conventional use full of danger. The history of the ecclesiastical titles of Christendom offers in this respect a singular parallel to that of the titles of Judaism. In Abbot (derived from Abba=Father), in Papa and Pope (which have risen from their application to every priest, till they culminate in the Pontifex summus of the Church of Home), in our "Father in God," as applied to Bishops, we find examples of the use of like language, liable to the same abuse. It would, of course, be a slavish literalism to see in our Lord's words an absolute prohibition of these and like words in ecclesiastical or civil life. What was meant was to warn men against so recognising, in any case, the fatherhood of men as to forget the Fatherhood of God. Even the teacher and apostle, who is a father to others, needs to remember that he is as a "little child" in the relation to God. (Comp. St. Paul's claim in 1Corinthians 4:15.)

Verse 9. - Your father. This was the title given to eminent teachers and founders of schools, to whom the people were taught to look up rather than to God. It was also addressed to prophets (2 Kings 2:12; 2 Kings 6:21). In ver. 8 Christ said, "be not called;" here he uses the active, "call not," as if he would intimate that his followers must not give this honoured title to any doctor out of complaisance, or flattery, or affectation. Upon the earth. In contradistinction to heaven, where our true Father dwells. They were to follow no earthly school. They had natural lathers and spiritual fathers, but the authority of all comes from God; it is delegated, not essential; and good teachers would make men look to God, and not to themselves, as the source of power and truth.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
And
καὶ (kai)
Conjunction
Strong's 2532: And, even, also, namely.

do not call anyone
καλέσητε (kalesēte)
Verb - Aorist Subjunctive Active - 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 2564: (a) I call, summon, invite, (b) I call, name. Akin to the base of keleuo; to 'call'.

on
ἐπὶ (epi)
Preposition
Strong's 1909: On, to, against, on the basis of, at.

earth
γῆς (gēs)
Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular
Strong's 1093: Contracted from a primary word; soil; by extension a region, or the solid part or the whole of the terrene globe.

your
ὑμῶν (hymōn)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Genitive 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 4771: You. The person pronoun of the second person singular; thou.

father,
πατέρα (patera)
Noun - Accusative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3962: Father, (Heavenly) Father, ancestor, elder, senior. Apparently a primary word; a 'father'.

for
γάρ (gar)
Conjunction
Strong's 1063: For. A primary particle; properly, assigning a reason.

you
ὑμῶν (hymōn)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Genitive 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 4771: You. The person pronoun of the second person singular; thou.

[have]
ἐστιν (estin)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 1510: I am, exist. The first person singular present indicative; a prolonged form of a primary and defective verb; I exist.

one
εἷς (heis)
Adjective - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 1520: One. (including the neuter Hen); a primary numeral; one.

Father,
Πατὴρ (Patēr)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3962: Father, (Heavenly) Father, ancestor, elder, senior. Apparently a primary word; a 'father'.

who [is]
(ho)
Article - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

in heaven.
οὐράνιος (ouranios)
Adjective - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3770: In heaven, belonging to heaven, heavenly, from heaven. From ouranos; celestial, i.e. Belonging to or coming from the sky.


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NT Gospels: Matthew 23:9 Call no man on the earth your (Matt. Mat Mt)
Matthew 23:8
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