[B-Greek] John 1:18

Thomas Thackery tthackery at gmail.com
Thu Aug 24 09:54:34 EDT 2006


I respectfully find the explanation lacking.  I point to Bart  
Ehrman's response on the subject where this issue also ended in  
stalemate:  http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/test-archives/ 
html4/1998-01/22538.html

fin.
Thomas Thackery
California, USA

On Aug 23, 2006, at 11:51 PM, Harold Derksen wrote:

All,

Perhaps a bit of lenience will be granted for responding to the  
subject raised here.

Hello Thomas,

A Jewish audience, or perhaps even an orthodox Christian audience,  
may well understand that the only-begotten god ([hO] MONOGENES QEOS)  
is not metaphorical but a literal description of the result of  
Messiah’s obedience to his Father’s will. Briefly, that the pre- 
existent theos (Heb. elohim), also known as the Angel of YHVH,  
humbled himself by giving up his spirit-based existence, became  
mortal (a man), and upon his resurrection from death was transformed  
(born) into a spirit-based existence as before (Phil. 2:5-9) as a  
generation of God the Father. Thus he became the only born god (theos  
= elohim) to date (cf. John 3:6). Thus what was “born” was a new  
creature (compared to the physical) and a true son of God, or bene  
elohim as per Hebrew Scripture. In light of this, both the  
translation and meaning are clear.

It appears the difficulty many have with the concept inherent in the  
Greek term MONOGENES QEOS, comes from the narrow definition and  
application that is often associated with the English word God and  
the Greek word QEOS. Of course theological bias also plays a  
significant role but it is hoped that Greek word structure and  
grammatical considerations are what is strictly dealt with here.

Harold Derksen
DHS Bible Research Group
j4_12 at yahoo.com



Thomas Thackery <tthackery at gmail.com> wrote:

The translation and meaning of John 1:18 become clear when the
statement is accompanied with the rest of the chapter, book, and
ultimately library. This business of gods begetting gods is
commonplace for, say, Hesiod, but I strongly suggest that such a
notion posited to a Jewish audience would hardly (have been) or be
understood with out some major qualification---namely that a sole-
descendant "only-begotten god" ([hO] MONOGENES QEOS) is metaphoric
for the King Messiah. Within the context of the of the Johanine
account, and the rest of the Christian library, the "what" that was
born was clearly a son.

Groetjes,
Thomas Thackery
California, USA

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