[B-Greek] monogenes
Jim West
jwest at highland.net
Thu Mar 9 07:05:24 EST 2006
Octavio Rodriguez wrote:
> Dear Sir:
>
> The greek word monogenes is a compound of the words mono and genes. Many
> scholars say that genes is from ginomai rather than gennao. Other scholar
> say that the traditional ethymology from gennao is right.
> I think both positions at once can�t be true.
> What is the real root?. Is it wrong the meaning only-begotten?.
>
Hello!
I'm not sure if your question, were it answered, would be relevant to
exegesis or translation because it seems to suggest that knowing a words
root makes clear its contextual meaning. The "root fallacy" was long
ago demonstrated to be problematic. Monogenes, in its Johannine
context, simply means "unique" or "one of a kind". As my honored
college Greek teacher said to us so many times so many years ago- "words
have usage, not meaning".
Best,
Jim
--
Jim West
http://web.infoave.net/~jwest -- Biblical Studies Resources
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list