[B-Greek] MONOGENHS in the fourth gospel
Leonard Jayawardena
leonardj at live.com
Sat Sep 25 02:28:05 EDT 2010
Sometime ago, I argued under the above thread that MONOGENHS in the fourth gospel meant "best-beloved," citing, inter alia, Josephus 20:20 as supporting this understanding of this word.
I have reconsidered this matter since and now think that MONOGENHS in the fourth gospel has exactly the same sense that it has in all other occurrences in the NT: "only." Therefore the phrase MONOGENHS hUIOS in the fourth gospel (and 1 John) means "only son" and MONOGENHS QEOS in John 1:18 means "only god." As I explained in an earlier post, QEOS in MONOGENHS QEOS is a common noun.
I do not now think that there are any occurrences of MONOGENHS in extant Greek literature which support understanding MONOGENHS as "best-beloved" or "favourite."
Leonard Jayawardena
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