[B-Greek] Can QEOS be used in apposition to MONOGENHS in John1:18-revised

Rolf Furuli furuli at online.no
Thu Nov 5 09:50:28 EST 2009


Dear Octavio,

I have no objections to the rendering "the only-begotten God."  The 
lexical meaning of a word existed as a concept in the minds of native 
speakers of Greek. Such a concept usually had a rather clear core of 
meaning and became more fuzzy towards the edges. A native speaker 
would in most cases, on the basis of the context, instantaneously 
know which area of the concept that the author wanted to make visible.

What we find in Greek-English lexicons are not lexical meanings, but 
glosses, that is, the English words mostly used for translating the 
particular Greek words. When translating one Greek word, such as 
MONOGENHS, the translator must choose one, or occasionally two words. 
By choosing one word, one must leave out the alternatives. Because we 
do not have the ancient Greek presupposition pool, it is difficult 
for us to know exactly which part of the concept MONOGENHS that John 
wanted to make visible. So your suggestion is just as good as mine, 
or perhaps even better. The point, however, is that QEOS is 
qualified, and that the referent by this is shown to be an individual 
different from THE GOD (without qualification). But the exact nuances 
of the qualification can be discussed.


Best regards,

Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo





>Dear Rolf:
>
>I think the best translation is "the only-begotten God" or "the 
>only-born God",
>because MONOGENHS is (in this context) related with the Son of God 
>who is  born.
>Translations like "the unique God" are without context, because the 
>"uniqueness" would not be specified. In which sense hO LOGOS is 
>QEOS?, the answer is given by the MONOGENHS adjetive. John is 
>telling us that hO LOGOS  is QEOS without the article (John 1:1c) 
>and a God begotten (John 1:18) so as to ensure the monotheism with 
>the Father's Divinity.
>
>Regards
>Octavio Rodriguez
>
>On Thu, Nov 5, 2009 at 11:32 AM, Rolf Furuli 
><<mailto:furuli at online.no>furuli at online.no> wrote:
>
>



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