On Father’s Day we honor the dads who have sheltered us, nurtured us, and spent hundreds of hours mowing the lawn. We often contrast a father’s love from Mom’s by calling it conditional, but as the best paternal models of the Bible show, dads manage to love us—even the children who aren’t their biological offspring—despite character flaws and tough circumstances.

Abraham

Found in: Genesis 21-22
Virtue: Obedience
Biblical First: First dad of the new covenant



“Father” is part of his very name: Avram, his name before God changed it, meant “the father is exalted.” His God-given name, Abraham or “father of many,” sealed a new covenant with Israel: God promised Abraham that his descendants would number as the stars, which must have been hard to imagine for a man of 99—Avram’s age when he and his first wife Sarah got the news she would bear a son. Their joy turned to mourning when Abraham was commanded to sacrifice that same son, Isaac, the key to all the promises of descendants and nationhood. When, at the last moment, God provided a ram for the sacrifice, He preserved Isaac’s life and Abraham’s posterity. Abraham is now considered the father of three world faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Jethro

Found in: Exodus 18
Virtue: Behind-the-scenes advice
Biblical First: First foreigner in the Bible to spiritually advise God’s prophet



The father of Moses’ wife, Zipporah, gets awards for Best Grandpa and Best Father-in-Law. After caring for Zipporah and her children while Moses was off dealing with the pesky Amalekites, he later counseled the fatherless Moses about how to govern his people. Jethro realizes Moses is overtaxed from arbitrating the Israelites’ disputes from sunup to sundown. Though not a believer (and a priest of a foreign nation), Jethro gently chastises Moses to pray about these matters to God and to learn to delegate his responsibilities. This fatherly wisdom paves the way for the nation-building gift of the Ten Commandments.

King David

Found in: 2 Samuel 18-19
Virtue: Loving a rebellious son
Biblical First: First king to weep publicly in the Bible



David didn’t have a great relationship with his own father, Jesse. When a prophet came to the house to scout out a potential future king, Jesse didn’t call David to line up with his older brothers, dismissing him as a mere shepherd. So it’s little surprise that David grew up to be the kind of dad whose ambition (and lust) preempted father-son bonding. One of his sons, Absalom, did everything he could to steal David’s throne and undermine his authority, even sleeping with some of David’s wives. But when David’s top general ends the threat to the monarchy by killing Absalom in battle, David deeply mourned the son he’d lost, crying, “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!” Blood is always thicker than water.

Photos:
Abraham: George Campfield/Getty Images
Abraham and Enoch, from the Creation Window at All Saints Church, Selsley, UK, 1861
Jethro: Jan Victors
Moses and the Daughters of Jethro, c. 1635
King David: Absolon Stumme/Getty Images
The Tree of Jesse, from the Dome Altar in Hamburg, Germany, 1499

Solomon

Found in: 1 Kings 3
Virtue: Wisdom
Biblical First: First to build God a temple in Jerusalem



Like his older brother Absalom and his father David, Solomon had his share of issues: he left a deeply divided kingdom at his death, with two of his sons engaging in vicious civil war. But he prayed for, and got, an essentially fatherly gift of wisdom. (The Lord was seriously impressed that Solomon had not prayed for wealth, long life, or to have the heads of his enemies impaled on sticks.) Solomon’s wisdom was put to the test immediately when he had to judge between two women who both claimed that a certain baby boy belonged to them. Solomon determined that the fairest course would be to cut the boy in half and give half to each woman—knowing all the while that the woman who refused to allow the precious child to be harmed was in fact its true mother.

Mordecai

Found in: The Book of Esther
Virtue: Being a model foster dad
Biblical First: First Jew to rise to prominent office in the Persian court



Mordecai’s heroism when he adopted his cousin Esther as his own daughter, and then sagely guided her through court intrigue as she rose to be a queen of the Persian Empire. With Mordecai’s help, Esther was able to save the Jewish people from genocide, a triumph that Jews still celebrate every spring in the festival of Purim.

Abba (God the Father)

Found in: The whole Bible, but especially Mark 14:36
Virtue: You name it
Biblical First: Preceded creation



Sometimes you don’t want to pray to an all-knowing, all-powerful God of the Universe. Sometimes you just want your “daddy.” When Jesus was in His darkest hour, He prayed that God would take the cup of pain away from Him, then concluded that He would do the Father’s will no matter what. But what’s especially interesting is how Jesus addressed God: as Daddy. The Aramaic word “Abba” was a familiar and intimate term, one used by young children. Paul picked it up again in Romans when he talked about our response when we receive the Spirit of adoption into God’s family and cry out “Abba, Father.” Abba is a word that presumes a loving relationship, a divine Dad who sees our deepest pain.

Joseph, Jesus’ Earthly Dad

Found in: Matthew 1
Virtue: Listening
Biblical First: First to bring up a Son of God



Joseph the carpenter doesn’t utter one word in the Gospels, so it’s no wonder that he’s gotten a reputation as the strong, silent type. Yet he was clearly a good listener. Joseph had a dream in which God told him that Mary, his fiancée, was pregnant with a child of the Holy Spirit. This news would have been difficult for most people to swallow, but Joseph took it in stride and set about raising the child as his own son. Joseph later learned from another dream that Jesus was in danger, so he moved the family to Egypt to escape Herod’s cruelty. Years later, he saw in a third dream that Herod had died, so he moved the family back to Israel, and then responded to a fourth dream by choosing to settle in the region of Galilee. There’s no record of Joseph questioning all this dream-leading; he just obediently followed God’s direction.

Photos:
Solomon: Nicolas Poussin/Getty Images
The Judgement of Solomon, 1649
Mordecai: Aert de Gelder
Esther and Mordecai, 1685
Abba: Benvenuto Tisi da Garofalo/Getty Images
God Blessing the Earth, National Museum in Stockholm, Sweden
Joseph: Georges de la Tour
Saint Joseph the Carpenter, c. 1645

Jairus

Found in: Mark 5:22; Luke 8:41
Virtue: Faith
Biblical First: First New Testament dad to have a child resurrected



One of the rulers of the synagogue in Galilee, Jairus risked his reputation when he fell at Jesus’ feet and begged Him to heal his 12-year-old daughter. Other religious leaders had already argued with Jesus about fasting, Sabbath law, and other issues. But Jairus, whose name means “he will awaken,” put the life of his darling daughter first. We can imagine his impatience when Jesus was detained en route to Jairus’s house by a woman who had been hemorrhaging for 12 years, and his anguish when people arrived from home to inform Jairus that his daughter had died. His faith is repaid when Jesus raised the girl from the dead.

The Father in the Prodigal Son story

Found in: Luke 15
Virtue: Unconditional love
Biblical First: First dad to show God’s radical forgiveness



We don’t know his name or much about him. He was a prosperous farmer, but his farm obviously meant less to him than his two sons. When his profligate younger son asked to have his future inheritance converted to cash so he could spend it on wine, women, and song, the father gave it to him, presumably with a grieving heart. The younger son soon came to regret his sinful life and practiced a speech that he would use in returning to his father, hoping for a little clemency. He never had a chance to give the speech, though, because while he was “yet a long way off” his father spied him on the road and welcomed him back with open arms, no questions asked. This father showed limitless compassion—not just for the prodigal son, but for his fuming older son, who had to learn that a father’s love is more about extravagant mercy than justice.

Paul

Found in: Philemon; Acts
Virtue: Mentoring the next generation
Biblical First: First to claim direct experience of Jesus after the Ascension



Considering that Paul made such a big deal out of his celibacy, he’s the last guy you’d expect to grace our list. But just as Catholic priests are called “Father” because they are spiritual fathers to so many, Paul is a “father” to a lot of newbie Christians. After his own dramatic conversion from anti-Christian bully to Christian missionary, he mentored Timothy, Silas, and Barnabas—even calling Timothy his “own son in the faith”—and encouraging the leadership of many women, including Lydia and Junia. One of the most touching instances of Paul’s spiritual fatherhood comes in the don’t-blink-or-you’ll miss-it Book of Philemon, where Paul pleads for Onesimus, a slave “whose father I have become in my imprisonment.”

Jana Riess, who holds a Ph.D in American religious history from Columbia University, is an editor at Westminster John Knox Press. She reviews books and films on her blog, The Review Revolution.

Photos:
Jairus: Paolo Veronesse
Raising of the Daughter of Jairus, c. 1546
Father of the Prodigal Son: James Jacques Joseph Tissot/Getty Images
The Prodigal Son in Modern Life: The Return, c. 1882
Paul: Byzantine School/Getty Images
St. Paul Preaching to the Jews at Damascus, from Scenes from the Life of St. Paul in Sicily, Italy