Jesus was not an egalitarian. A critique of an anachronistic and idealist theory

(4) The new family of God that Jesus established had as its model the family as it was known to Jesus and his followers. The only type of family that existed in Jesus' milieu was the conventional patriarchal family. Furthermore, as noted above, while Jesus modified the basis of inclusion in this new surrogate family from blood and marriage to trust in God and thereby opened its membership to all persons trusting in God, his teaching involved no explicit condemnation of the patriarchal structure of the family as such.

(5) Consistent with Jesus' establishment of a new family is the manner in which he conceived of his relation to God in familial and patriarchal terms. Jesus spoke of God most frequently as "Father" (Matt 12:50/Gos.Thom. 99; cf. Mark 3:35/Luke 8:21; Mark 14:36/Matt 26:39/Luke 22:42; Matt 5:48/Luke 6:36; Matt 6:9/Luke 11:2; Matt 6:32/Luke 12:30; Matt 7:11/Luke 11:13; Matt 11:25-27/Luke 10:21-22/Gos.Thom. 61:3. Cf. also Mark 11:25/Matt 6:14; Mark 13:32/Matt 24:36). Jesus prayed to GOd not as "king" but as "Father" and taught his followers to do likewise (Matt 6:9-13/Luke 11:2-4). He spoke of himself, correlatively, as God's "son" (Matt 11:25-27/Luke 10:21-22/ GosThom 61:4; cf. John 3:35; 13:3) Those who entrust themselves to GOd and become followers of Jesus he called "children" (of God) (Mark 2:5/Matt 9:2; cf. Matt 11:19/ Luke 7:35; Gos.Thom.3:4) or "sons of God/Highest" (Matt 5:45/Luke 6:35) or "daughter" (Mark 5:34/Matt 9:22/Luke 8:48). In relation to Jesus and each other, these "children of God" were "brothers" and "sisters," (Mark 3:35/Matt 12:50/Luke 8:21; Matt 7:3-5/Luke 6:41-42; Matt 18:15/ Luke 17:3), members of God's new surrogate family who live in accord with the Father's will and the distinctive values of this family and thereby honor both the family and the family's heavenly patriarch.

(6) Jesus' moral teaching urged behavior consistent with traditional family values (submission to the Father's will, loyalty, solidarity, respect of parents and superiors, honesty without oaths, generosity to family members without counting the cost, unlimited forgiveness of offenses and debts, protection of wives, women, orphans and the most vulnerable, the integrity of marriage, mutual humility and proscription of ambition, compassion, and in general honorable familial conduct). Nowhere does any of this instruction involve explicit rejection of patriarchy or patriarchal order; see also Malina 1994:114-17.