[B-Greek] Unique Vs. Begotten

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at ioa.com
Wed Jun 8 14:02:06 EDT 2005


On Jun 8, 2005, at 1:33 PM, malcolm robertson wrote:

> There is a simply aspact of meaning that we have apparently  
> overlooked.  GINOMAI can simply mean *be*. The English gloss and  
> semantic nuance would be more difficult to capture, but the French  
> unique or the English *one and only* are perhaps the better  
> attempts at unpacking this concept of MONOGENHS QEOS (or hUIOS) as  
> one reads it based on textual evidence.
>
> It is similiar to the nuances found between the Hebrew words  
> bara' (Gen 1:1), yalad (Ps 2:7/Acts 13:33) and qanah (Prov. 8:22)  
> and chul (8:25).  There is a distinct semantic difference and  
> nuance that only the context can provide.

The problem of the sense of MONOGENHS in GNT usage is pretty well  
treated, in my opinion, in BDAG. I'd question whether "be" is ever  
really an adequate sense of GINOMAI, although the aorist EGENETO may  
function as an aorist for EIMI, which has no aorist -- but EGENETO  
doesn't really
mean "was" but "came to be" or "got to be."

> James Ernest <jdemail at charter.net> wrote:
> For the etymological question I think you can just count the NUs. But
> semantically there's overlap, and orthographically there's confusion,
> between various words formed on these two stems, well into the fourth
> century AD.
>
> As to whether being begotten or born is the only way to become a  
> hUIOS:
> hUIOS has a semantic range; at one end of that range it clearly  
> implies
> physical begetting (by a father) or birthing (normally by a  
> mother); at
> another end any such notion is remote (e.g., "sons of perdition"). The
> theological question that we're steering around is the eventual  
> Christian
> understanding of where "son of God" as applied to Jesus falls  
> within or
> beyond the normal semantic range of the word "son."
>
> James Ernest
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
>> [mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Gary Hedrick
>> Sent: Tuesday, June 07, 2005 11:50 PM
>> To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
>> Subject: RE: [B-Greek] Unique Vs. Begotten
>>
>>
>> I didn't mean to provoke any sort of theological
>> discussion, so let me ask my question in another way. Does
>> MONOGENHS derive from GINNAW
>> (beget) or GENWMAI (become)?
>> Also, is being born or begotten the only way to become
>> a son (hUIOS)?
>>
>> Gary Hedrick
>>
>>
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>
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Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/




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