[B-Greek] only begotten
WmHBoyd at aol.com
WmHBoyd at aol.com
Tue Dec 9 07:11:55 EST 2003
It was said...
"MONOGENHS is "one of a kind," "unique," "special." It is often used to refer
specifically to only-born children, but in the sense that they are "unique"
(they have no siblings). It does not carry with it the notion of "begetting"
or "producing" (as in GENNAW)."
That is a common answer, but all the uses of MONOGENHS I know of are used either literally or figuratively in a parent - child relationship. Consider hERMOGENHS (2 Tim.1:15), the common answer here is that the name means "begotten of Mercury." That would be "hERMO-" for Mercury, "-GENHS" for begotten. It seems that translators in the past, up to the ASV of 1901, thought "begotten" was acceptable, and now most do not. I do not know the reasons why. Did we learn something in the 1900s that changed people's minds? Are there other used of "-GENHS" we can look to for guidance?
Rather than question the "-GENHS" part of the word, I question the common rendering of "MONO-." "Only" does not work well for Hebrews 11:17 because Abraham had other children, but "Unique" would because Isaac was the only child of Abraham and Sarah. Of course, he was unique for other reasons too.
William Boyd
Little Rock
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