[B-Greek] only begotten

Doug Hoxworth dhoxworth at charter.net
Tue Dec 9 18:00:59 EST 2003


><Mark>
>...but I suspect that the basic idea behind the element -GENHS is indeed begetting

<doug>
many construe that MONOGENHS is derived from "MONO" - 
one,unique and "GENOS" - kind (as opposed to GINOMAI). but 
i'm wondering if one should drive such a wedge between the 
meanings of GENOS and GINOMAI. either way, some idea of 
begetting is behind it. but i think where we err is when 
we assume that this must always refer to natural 
generation. perhaps the point is that, in some way, the 
MONOGENHS is derived from the one who is the Father to the 
MONOGENHS.

but again, i think the issue is whether we are to 
understand MONOGENHS as "only begotten" or simply 
"unique/one-a-kind/special". i would prefer the latter for 
various reasons.



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