Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:
(sire). Source of authority (Gen. 3:16; 1 Cor. 11:3). Disrespect of, condemned (Ex. 21:15-17; 22:17; Lev. 20:9; 1 Tim. 1:9). Parental obedience bears a promise (Ex. 20:12). Father also a priest (Gen. 8:20). Any ancestor (Deut. 1:11; Matt. 23:30). A title (Judg. 17:10; 1 Sam. 10:12; Acts 7:2). Protector (Psa. 68:5). Author and founder (Gen. 4:21; Rom. 4:12). Divine appellation (Deut. 32:6; Matt. 6:4; Rom. 1:7).
Concise Bible Dictionary:
Except as creator and preserver of all, God is not revealed as Father in the O. T. "Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us?" (Mal. 2:10). The Lord Jesus is also prophesied of as “the everlasting Father” or “Father of the everlasting age” (Isa. 9:6). It was reserved for the N. T. times that God should be made known as Father; and this was done only by the Lord Jesus while upon earth, who constantly spoke to His disciples of God as their Father in heaven (Matt. 5:16, 45, 48; Matt. 6:1, 8, 14-15, &c). He could, as the Son, while on earth thus make Him known to them. After the resurrection the Lord was able to send this message to His disciples, whom He now calls His “brethren”: "I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God" (John 20:17). The will of the Father and the work of His Son, the source of eternal life to them, had brought the disciples in this respect into the same heavenly position as the risen Christ Himself before the Father. The term “father” is used symbolically when there is a moral likeness between a leader and his followers (John 8:38-44).
In the O. T. the word ab is at times used as “founder:” thus in 1 Chronicles 4:4 one is mentioned as the “father” of Beth-lehem.
Strong’s Dictionary of Hebrew Words:
Meaning:
(Aramaic) corresponding to 1