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monogenes - Only Begotten

The phrase "only begotten" is translated from the Greek word, monogenes, which is found nine times in the New Testament—three in the Gospel of Luke, five by the apostle John and once in Hebrews. Here are the occurrences from the apostle John:

  • John 1:14: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
  • John 1:18: No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.
  • John 3:16: For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
  • John 3:18: He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
  • 1 John 4:9: In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.

And the ones in Luke and the one in Hebrews are as follows:

  • Luke 7:12, "...a man who had died was being carried out, the only [Greek, monogenes] son of his mother, and she was a widow..."
  • Luke 8:42, "for he had an only [Greek, monogenes] daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying."
  • Luke 9:38, "And behold, a man from the crowd cried out, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only [Greek, monogenes] child."
  • Hebrews 11:17: By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,

The meaning of "begotten"

The dictionary definition of "begotten" is as follows:

  • "Something is begotten when it's been generated by procreation—in other words, it's been fathered. A somewhat old fashioned adjective, begotten is the past participle of the verb beget, which means to father or produce as offspring." —Definition of begotten

Typically this word is used of men in relationship to their children, but can also be used of women to their children (e.g. Luke 7:12). Thus, men beget children while women give birth to children. Example usage: "they hoped that the King might beget an heir by his new queen."

Quoting C.S. Lewis’ “Mere Christianity”, Book IV (“Beyond Personality”), Mere Christianity - Book IV - Chapter 1 ("Making and Begetting"), it reads in part:

10. When we speak of the Son being “begotten”, we are not talking about the incarnation. One of the creeds says that Christ is the Son of God “begotten, not created”; and it adds “begotten by his Father before all worlds.” Will you please get it quite clear that this has nothing to do with the fact that when Christ was born on earth as a man, that man was the son of a virgin? We are not now thinking about the Virgin Birth. We are thinking about something that happened before Nature was created at all, before time began. “Before all worlds” Christ is begotten, not created.

(i) To beget means to have something of the same kind. To beget is to become the father of: to create is to make. And the difference is this. When you beget, you beget something of the same kind as yourself. A man begets human babies, a beaver begets little beavers and a bird begets eggs which turn into little birds.

(ii) To make is to make something of a different kind. But when you make, you make something of a different kind from yourself. A bird makes a nest, a beaver builds a dam, a man makes a wireless set-or he may make something more like himself than a wireless set: say, a statue. If he is a clever enough carver he may make a statue which is very like a man indeed. But, of course, it is not a real man; it only looks like one. It cannot breathe or think. It is not alive.

(iii) There is a difference between making and begetting. What God begets is God; just as what man begets is man. What God creates is not God; just as what man makes is not man. That is why men are not Sons of God in the sense that Christ is. They may be like God in certain ways, but they are not things of the same kind. They are more like statues or pictures of God.

Caveat on the above C.S. Lewis' statement: C.S. Lewis believed in the "eternal generation" of Christ, which is clearly an orthodox trinitarian teaching. Nevertheless, Lewis understood the difference between "begotten" and "created" which comes down to substance. A begotten is of the same substance, whereas a created is of a different substance than the creator.

The meaning of "monogenes"

Monogenes is a compound word made up of mono which means "only" and genes which means "species, race, family, offspring, kind." Most modern Greek scholars believe that the true meaning of genes is "unique" or "one and only" or "one of a kind." However, this view is "semantically reductionistic and theologically inadequate" (as discussed by Michael Marlowe in his article referenced in the following).

  • The Only Begotten Son (Michael Marlowe): The Greek word μονογενής is an adjective compounded of μονος “only” and γενος “species, race, family, offspring, kind.” In usage, with few exceptions it refers to an only son or daughter. When used in reference to a son, it cannot mean “one of a kind,” because the parent is also of the same kind. The meaning is, the son is the only offspring of the parent, not the only existing person of his kind.

Alternate translations in modern-day versions. Without justification, many modern Bible versions only use the mono part of monogenes and leave out the genes part, resulting in an "only Son" translation (as in NASB, RSV and ESV translations). Others use the modern interpretation of genes and translate monogenes as, "only unique Son," or similar wording (as in ISV, NET and NIV translations). The Biblical justification for this translation is found in Hebrews 11:17 where Isaac is mentioned as Abraham's "only begotten [Greek, monogenes] son." They argue that in fact Abraham already had another son, Ishmael, through the slave woman, Hagar, so Isaac could not be the only begotten son. However, the counter-argument is that God intended the promises to Abraham be given by way of Sarah, his legitimate wife (called the free woman in Galatians 4:30), and not someone else.

  • Genesis 17:18-19 (ESV) : And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.

God did not recognize Ishmael in His covenant with Abraham, but only Isaac—the only son begotten with Sarah ("his wife"). Shortly after Isaac's birth, Ishmael and his mother were cast out of Abraham's household (Genesis 21:10-12; Galatians 4:30). In the context of Hebrews 11:17, this happened long before God told Abraham to offer up Isaac (Genesis 22:1-2). By this time, not only was Isaac his only begotten son through Sarah, he was also his only son left to him.

Why is this an issue? Why is this debate over the meaning of monogenes so important? Because a proper understanding of the nature of the Son of God is at stake.

  • "The biological metaphor, in which the Son (and only the Son) shares the genus of the Father, conveys the idea that Jesus Christ is a true genetic Son, having the same divine nature or essence as the Father. The meaning of the word μονογενὴς (monogenes) here is not just “only” or “one and only,” as in the RSV, NIV, and ESV translations. John is not saying that the Son is “one of a kind.” He is saying that Christ is the second of a kind, uniquely sharing the genus of the Father because he is the only begotten Son of the Father, as in the KJV, ERV, and NASB." —Michael Marlowe, The Only Begotten Son.
  • ST May 30, 1895, par. 3: Not a son by creation, as were the angels, nor a son by adoption, as is the forgiven sinner, but a Son begotten in the express image of the Father’s person, and in all the brightness of his majesty and glory, one equal with God in authority, dignity, and divine perfection.

"The Trinity" on monogenes

The book, The Trinity (Whidden, Moon, Reeve), defines monogenes as follows:

  • First of all, the expression "only begotten" is a translation of the Greek word monogenes. The word is a combination of two Greek words: monos, meaning "only or "alone," and genos, "kind," or in the more extended sense, "sort," "family," "race," or "nation" (the English word "gene" derives from this Greek word). To put it as succinctly as possible, the word signifies "unique" or "one of a kind." —The Trinity, p. 95.

"offspring" omitted. The authors conveniently omit "offspring” for the meaning of genes. which is also a valid definition but inconvenient to acknowledge from a trinitarian perspective.

Root fallacy. The other issue is what is called the "root fallacy" where the component parts of a word do not necessarily reflect the meaning of a word. For example, the word "butterfly" does not mean a "butter-fly." In the same way, the Greek word monogenes does not necessarily encode mono-genes, but requires a study of its usage to fully determine its true meaning.

The book continues with the following:

  • The word genos derives from the Greek verb ginomai, which means to "come" or "come to be," not from the Greek word gennao, to "father" or "beget." Thus the word monogenes does not refer to God the Father generating Jesus as His literal, semidivine Son. It rather indicates Jesus' uniqueness as the incarnate Son—the God/man who has "come to be" an in-fleshed human while retaining His fully divine nature as one "equal with God" the Father (John 5:18). —The Trinity, p. 95.

Unwarranted conclusions. The authors jump to the above trinitarian conclusions without noting the evidence of usage of the word monogenes. The meaning of any word is derived by how it is used, not by the component parts it may represent (i.e. falling into the "root fallacy" idea). In the case of the four instances in the Bible where monogenes is *not* referring to the Son of God (i.e. Luke 7:12; 8:42; 9:38; and Hebrews 11:17), it is referring to an only birthed or fathered (i.e. "only begotten") child, whether son or daughter.

monogenes or monogennetos. The authors suggest that if the Bible writers had meant begotten, they would have used gennao, not genos. Thus, the "only begotten" term would have been monogennetos, not monogenes. But the term monogennetos would have been a new term coined by the Bible writers, since that term did not exist in their time. But why coin a new term when monogenes was ready at hand? Besides the fact that in both the Bible and non-biblical Greek literature from the 2nd century and earlier, monogenes was already being used to mean "only-begotten." See:

Appendix

Further reading