[B-Greek] MONOGENHS in the fourth gospel

Leonard Jayawardena leonardj at live.com
Sun Sep 26 08:30:03 EDT 2010


Michael Baber wrote:

"So Leonard, since you believe that MONOGENHS means "only," what is the difference between the adjective MONOS and the word MONOGENHS?"

N.E. Barry Hofstetter wrote:

Greetings, Leonard. You now appear to support the general modern consensus on the meaning of the word. Would you mind explaining what changed your mind, and what you mean that "QEOS in MONOGENHS QEOS is a common noun."

LJ: In hindsight, I should have written "the phrase MONOGENHS hUIOS in the fourth gospel (and 1 John) means 'only/only-begotten son' and MONOGENHS QEOS in John 1:18 means 'only/only-begotten god.'

The main purpose of my post was to say that I was wrong in trying to understanding MONOGENHS as "best-beloved" or "favourite." Therefore the contrast I was making was not so much between "only" and "only-begotten" but between "only" and "best-beloved" or "favourite." I acknowledge that, while there are some extra-biblical Greek texts which may support the meaning "only," the preponderance of evidence is on the side of MONOGENHS being "only-begotten." Even in its use in the most controversial passage in the NT involving this word, MONOGENHS QEOS in John 1:18, the idea of begettal (by a father) is reinforced by the immediately following words hO WN EIS TON KOLPWN PATROS, as I have pointed out in an earlier post.

I mainly relied on Whiston's translation of Ant. 20:20 for the meaning "specially-beloved" or "favourite" for MONOGENHS. However, as someone showed, hWS EIS MONOGENH in this passage is correctly translated "as unto a only-begotten son." As Josephus reports, Monobazus had other sons besides Izates. He is not calling Izates MOnobazus' MONOGENH but that the king treated this particular son as if he was his MONOGENH. For more details on this, please see the thread "Jos. Ant. 20:20 under MONOGENHS in BDAG."

I have already dealt with this point in an earlier post, but ‏I will again explain why I consider QEOS in MONOGENHS QEOS to be a common noun in my next post.

Leonard Jayawardena 		 	   		  



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