Social identity, status envy and Jesus'Abba

The historical Jesus grew up as a fatherless son. The aim of this article is to focus on two issues. It is argued that Jesus' fatherlessness should be taken into account when one considers his social identification. Secondly, a social-scientific explanation is given of his a-patriarchal ethos, his behavior towards endangered women and children, and especially his trust in God as his “Abba.” The theory of identification which is regarded as a model for interpretation of the data is the so-called “status envy hypothesis.” This paper was presented at the SBL International Meeting, Dublin, July 21–24, 1996.