[B-Greek] Unique Vs. Begotten
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at ioa.com
Fri Jun 10 06:10:08 EDT 2005
On Jun 9, 2005, at 11:41 PM, James Ernest wrote:
> Carl wrote:
>
>
>> MONOGENHS
>> (stem MONOGENES-)
>> derives from the noun GENOS/GENES, NOT from GENNAW (there is no verb
>> GINNAW) nor from
>> the verb GINOMAI (itself a reduplicated present from GEN/GON).
>>
>
> I wish I knew more about where to look up this kind of thing.
> (Chantraine?)
> I had it in my head that GENOS and GIGNOMAI are related (and LSJ
> seems to
> indicate so, but is very sketchy) and that GENOS can mean
> "derivation" (TDNT
> article on MONOGENHS pushes that meaning, referring to EUGENHS,
> DIOGENHS,
> etc., and this seems to mesh well with BDAG). On that basis
> together with
> biblical usage--which seems to be a pretty restricted part of the
> range one
> might expect for "unique" or "one of a kind," i.e., pretty much
> always with
> TEKNON or hUIOS--supports "only begotten" even while acknowledging
> that this
> is a translation of Lat. unigenitus and discussing Heb. YACHID etc.
>
> My question: is MONOGENHS related to GIGNOMAI or not, and how would
> we know?
> --Of course we all know by now that etymology doesn't determine
> meaning,
> right?
I think that the recent accounts of the meaning of MONOGENHS (BDAG,
L&N) are based
on analysis of usage rather than etymology. But with regard to the
etymology, let me just
state that the root in question has three forms with vowel gradation:
GEN, GON, and GN.
The nominal root is GENES, whence the noun TO GENOS and the 2-
termination adjective
MONOGENHS. The verb GI(G)NOMAI uses the present-stem reduplication
GI- and the zero-
grade form of the root GN to for GI-GN-O-MAI. The verb GENNAW uses
the present-stem
formative -NA with the e-grade of the root to form an alpha-contract
verb GEN-NA-W. Presumably
both the noun TO GENOS and the aorist form of the verb (what's called
the "root aorist")
EGENOMHN are both primitive. Inasmuch as English "kin" and "kind" are
both etymologically
related to this root, one might see in DIOGENHS, usually Englished as
"Zeus-born" or "Zeus-
descended" or "Zeus-kind" the notion of biological kinship or descent
(as has been quipped,
"All kings are Zeus-born, because if you trace the lineage of any
royal line back, you reach
a point where you must say, "God only knows who HIS father was!");
but even there, the
notion might just as well be "Zeus-kind" on grounds that KINGS are
not of the same nature
as ordinary human beings. So: MONOGENHS: "one of a kind." I think
that when the term
was applied to Jesus the probable understanding was that all
believers are brothers and
sisters of Jesus and co-heirs with him, but he is "Son" in a unique
sense. I write that not
as a theological judgment of my own but as a guess at the thinking
underlying the usage.
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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