#monogenes

Jesus as the only begotten

This is another in a series of excerpts from “What Every Christian Should Know About the Trinity,” available through Amazon and other booksellers. In the previous column, we showed how Jehovah’s Witnesses twist the use of “firstborn” in Scripture to deny the deity of Christ. They also misuse the term “only begotten,” which appears several times in the Gospel of John, most notably in John 3:16:…

The AV translation of Gk monogenḗs in six NT passages (Jn. 1:14, 18; 3:16, 18; He. 11:17; 1 Jn. 4:9), usually in the phrase “only begotten Son” (all the references except that in He. 11:17 are to Jesus’ relationship to God). The RSV and NEB render monogené̄s by “only”—a translation supported by the use of monogené̄s in the LXX. In each of its four occurrences in the LXX OT, monogenḗstra…

If Jesus is “Only-Begotten,” How is He Eternal God? Answering Jehovah’s Witnesses: John 3:16 (& 1:18)

Previous posts:

Was Jesus “a god”? Answering Jehovah’s Witnesses: John 1:1

How Can Jesus be “Firstborn of All Creation” yet Eternal God? Answering Jehovah’s Witnesses: Colossians 1:15-19

“MONOGENES“

The fact that Jesus is sometimes called “only begotten” causes a lot of confusion (and is, likewise, emphasized by our Jehovah’s Witness friends).

The King James Version famously says, “For God so…

Why call on the help of other beings when we can help ourselves much more potently?

The first 14 verses of the Gospel of St John can only be fully understood when we explore beneath the surface of the words. Looking beneath the surface is called the esoteric view.

I have known these 14 verses by heart since the early 1980s. They continue to intrigue me. It is as if you can never really know them, but occasionally they reveal something new.

Years ago I read “Becoming Aware of the…