[B-Greek] Begotten, Not Made

Jonathan Bailey baileyjn at hotmail.com
Wed Nov 9 03:53:56 EST 2005


Can anyone please help me get some information on the whole gennao vs genos 
in the monogenes issue? I am sure this subject has been talked to death, and 
most of you would be content to tell me to check the archives or to refer to 
widely available print material, but I am here in Iraq with no access to 
libraries, and limited access to the internet even.

I am thinking of switching from the NKJV translation to the ESV translation 
and this is one of the issues that I am wrestling with.

I see some names on here that I new from the 90's, namely Jim West. I am 
Jonathan Bailey, and attended the Hochule Fuer Juedische Studien in 
Heidelberg from 1997 to 2000, but when I got married, financial concerns 
caused me to give up my academic venues to support a family and landed me 
back in the Army. I am wrapping up a tour in Iraq, and have decided that I 
have to be true to my calling to return to academia. My wife, once an 
unskilled Russian immigrant, is now a qualified nurse and is supporting me 
getting out of the Army to go to school. I intend to be more focused on 
Hebrew and Semitic languages in the long run (The Army did teach me Arabic), 
but am using this year to 'get Greek mastered and out of the way'. I have 
been studying Greek for 10 years, but never with the focus required to gain 
a measure of solid 'fluency'. I have been reading the b-greek digests for a 
while now, never finding the need to contribute (I usually answer my own 
questions after doing some of my own searching, thanking myself for not 
posting on b-greek rashly and looking the fool).

But on this monogenes issue I just haven't had the time or opportunity to do 
the digging required to find what I want. My concern is that all the 
Reformation bibles translate monogenes as only begotten, and am skeptical 
that we have just now figured out the true meaning of this word, being 
millenia removed from the native speakers. I have the Peshitta and Vulgate 
available here on BibleWorks, but my knowlege of those languages is limited 
and I haven't come to any definite conclusions. So I was wondering if anyone 
could point me to some really solid information online or give me an indepth 
recap of what is making all the new bibles translate monogenes as 'unique' 
or 'one of a kind' based on linking the word to 'genos' instead of 'gennao'. 
What ancient texts support that theory? What phonological suppositions were 
involved?

Anything that you guys can clarify or any online resources you can point me 
to would be much appreciated.

Thanks a lot.

Jon Bailey

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