[B-Greek] monogenes

David Bielby dbielby at bloomingtonvineyard.org
Thu Mar 9 14:08:35 EST 2006


Dear Octavio

I'm a fan of the book "Exegetical Fallacies" by D. A. Carson.  It gives a method for rebuffing the idea that MONOGENHS means only begotten...and deals with this issue on pg 28.  Funny I was reading that very page or something
else about 20 minutes before reading your note!  It might help to get that
book and read the section on 'Root Fallacies'.  It explains more of what 
Jim was getting at in his note.

David Bielby
Pastor
Vineyard Christian Fellowship
dbielby at bloomngtonvineyard.org

-----Original Message-----
From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Jim West
Sent: Thursday, March 09, 2006 6:05 AM
To: Octavio Rodriguez; b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] monogenes



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---B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreekB-Greek mailing listB-Greek at lists.ibiblio.orghttp://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek





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