Μονογενης

[Alan Patterson]

It appears to me that this word never meant "only BEGOTTEN." (per BDAG) Does this word have any meaning I'm not aware of that allows it to be translated, "only BEGOTTEN"?

[Eeli Kaikkonen]

See also http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/forum/vie ... tten#p6141.

Yes, you're right. In the original situation it meant either "the only" (son) or "the very special one" amongst several, "the only one of its kind".

It reflects what the OT says of Isaac (Gen. 22:2, 12, 16; cf. Heb. 11:17, where monogenes is used).

[Alan Patterson]

Eeli,

I followed your link to a previous discussion of this word and found a paragraph that caught my attention.

Finally, I examined the suffix —γενής found in many Greek words, including εὐηγενής ("well born"), ἀγενής ("low born"), ἀλλογενής ("other born"), πατρογενής ("father born"), πυριγενής/ πυρογενής ("fire born"), γηγενής ("earth born") and θεογενής ("God born").

Here, he argues that all these words with -γενής have the idea of "born." If so, this does seem to imply that our word could mean 'only born.'

I do not really have a preference which way to translate it, but I really do like to be very accurate and precise. Any thoughts?

[Seumas Macdonald]

The later church fathers almost certainly use it to mean 'only-begotten', even if the very likely meaning in the NT context is something closer to 'unique in kind'.