Of Greek Verbs Related to Christ Being Begotten of God

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o2b
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Joined: July 18th, 2025, 8:50 am

Of Greek Verbs Related to Christ Being Begotten of God

Post by o2b »

Hi,

My examination of three New Testament Greek verbs, as applied to God and His Son, seems to me to be completely inconsistent with the doctrine of eternal generation. Moreover, they seem perfectly compatible with a completed event in the past, which resulted in the only begotten Son of God.

Strong's G1096 – ginomai - γίνομαι

Primary definition: to become, i.e. to come into existence, begin to be, receive being.

In all three of its occurrences, John 1:15, 27, 30

The verb is in the perfect active indicative tense.

The perfect active indicative in Greek is a verb tense that describes actions completed in the past with ongoing relevance or results in the present.

Moreover, in each of the three cases, the point in time is given some specificity – the Baptist: “before me for He was before Me.”

Strong's G1080 – gennaō – γεννάω

Primary definition: Of men who fathered children, to be born, to be begotten, of women giving birth to children.

In all three cases, the perfect active indicative tense is used. In two of the three cases, time is specified
(Acts 13:33; Hebrews 1:5 – today). 1 John 5:1 being the lone time time is not specified.

Moreover, as what seems to me to be corroborating evidence, the Greek exerchomai is used six times in John with respect to Christ and His Father.

Strong's G1831 – exerchomai – ἐξέρχομαι

In every case, the aorist active indicative tense is used (read: past tense), once again signifying an event that took place in the past.

Regarding exerchomai, in John 16:25-28, Jesus says to His disciples, the time is coming when He will no longer speak with figure of speech (read: non-literal). He then says He proceeded forth (past tense) from inside God. His disciples reply that now they know He is speaking plainly to Him (read: literally). Now they knew He proceeded forth from inside God.

Jesus then says, “Do you now believe” (John 16:31). In other words, He affirms their understanding of an event that took place in the past.

In one other exerchomai passage, Jesus, in praying to His Father, tells Him that He came forth from inside Him (past tense), John 17:8.

For supporting evidence, the lone time Christ is referred to as begotten of God in the OT, Proverbs 8:24-25, the Hebrew perfect Polal (qatar) tense is used – again, a completed event at some point in time. And the time is specified – before creation.

This exhausts every verb in the Bible that I am aware of that speak of Christ’s being begotten of God.

Questions:
Does the (above-mentioned) Greek allow that Christ was begotten of God and it is a completed event?

How is eternal generation not even blatantly violated by the Greek?
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