Monogenēs
Encyclopedia
Monogenēs is a Greek word which may be used both as an adjective
monogenēs pais only child, or only legitimate child, special child, and also on its own as a noun
; o monogenēs "the only one", or "the only legitimate child".
The term is notable outside normal Greek usage in two special areas: firstly the use of the term in the cosmology of Plato
. Secondly on the use of the term in the Gospel of John
. As concerns the use by Plato there is broad academic consensus, generally following the understanding of the philosopher Proclus
(412–485 AD).
In Christian usage however there have been three disputed questions concerning the word.
1. Does the word mean "only begotten" - as traditionally in the King James Version, with emphasis on actual birth or begettal, fathering, or does it simply mean "only" with no reference to the act of begettal?
2. Does the word mean "only, single, unique" son or daughter, or "special, privileged, favourite, legitimate" son or daughter?
3. Related textual critical issues to John 1:18.
& Scott
the following main definition is given:
A typical example:
But note that this example does not necessarily rule out sons by concubines.
An exhaustive listing of monogenēs can be found in the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae
database.
Parmenides
The reference above found in Liddell Scott, and therefore in other lexicons, and unquestioned in Christian commentaries, to a use of monogenes by Parmenides has more recently been shown to probably be incorrect. The text of Parmenides 8. 4 is "unusually corrupt". Plutarch
read the text as holomeles (οὐλομελές, "whole-limbed"). The original reconstruction by H. Diels (1897) left the text open. Later editions of Diels-Kranz defer to Plutarch's reading in the reconstructed Greek text. Others since reconstructed the text as monogenes (only-begotten) but John R. Wilson (1970) argues that this is inconsistent with context and suggests the text as monomeles (one-limbed). The inconsistency is accepted by H. Schmitz (1988) but Schmitz proposes instead a return to holomeles (οὐλομελές, "whole-limbed").
's Timaeus
speaks twice of a monogenes Heaven:
The subject is the creation, or begetting, of heaven (ouranos) as a unique birth, not the birth of more than one cosmos. Comparison is also made with the begetting of animals and birds from the souls of "light-minded men".
In commentary on Plato Proclus
considers that if a visible god like the ouranos is to resemble higher invisible gods, then the visible cosmos must be monogenes.
There is an increase in the use of monogenes in later versions of the Septuagint. Gen 22:2 "the beloved one whom you have loved" (ton agapeton, on egapesas) in Aquila's Greek translation uses monogenēs to translate yachid, the common Hebrew word for "only".
. In Tertullian's Against the Valentinians, he gives the name to one of their thirty aeons as monogenes in a syzygy
with makaria, Blessedness.
Similar content is found in:
The problem with magical inscriptions, on papyri, walls or ostraca, is firstly dating the source, secondly that magical spells by their nature tend to be syncretic. In the example above lovestruck Capitolina summons "all the divinities" to release the spirits of "all who drowned in the Nile, the unmarried dead" etc. to sway the heart of her young man, yet she may not have known enough about Judaism or Christianity, or even Gnostic Christianity, to know whether "YAHWEH SABAOTH" and "the Only-Begotten" were the same god or not.
The meaning of monogenēs was part of early Christian christological
controversy regarding the Trinity
. It is claimed that Arian
arguments that used texts that refer to Christ as God's "only begotten Son" are based on a misunderstanding of the Greek word monogenēs and that the Greek word does not mean "begotten" in the sense we beget children but means "having no peer, unique".
Alternatively in favour that the word monogenēs does carry some meaning related to begetting is the etymological origin mono- (only) + -genes (born, begotten). The question is whether the etymological origin
was still "live" as part of the meaning when the New Testament was written, or whether semantic shift
has occurred. Limiting the semantic change of monogenes is that the normal word monos is still the default word in New Testament times, and that the terms co-exist in Greek, Latin and English:
Also there is a question about how separate from the idea of -genes birth and begetting the cited uses of monogenes in the sense of "unique" truly are. For example the ending -genes is arguably not redundant even in the sense of "only" as per when Clement of Rome
(96 AD), and later Origen
, Cyril and others, employ monogenes to describe the rebirth of the phoenix
. At issue is whether Clement is merely stressing monos unique, or using monogenes to indicate unique in its method of rebirth, or possibly that there is only one single bird born and reborn. Likewise in Plato's Timaeus, the "only-begotten and created Heaven", is still unique in how it is begotten, in comparison to the begetting of animals and men, just as Earth and Heaven give birth to Ocean and Tethys. Of the Liddell Scott references for "unique" (monogenes being used purely as monos) that leaves only Parmenides, which (as above) is no longer considered a likely reading of the Greek text.
Additionally the New Testament frame of reference for monogenes is established by uses of the main verb "beget", and readings of complimentary verses, for example:
stated:
In his 1894 translation of Philo Charles Duke Yonge
rendered "loved-and-only son" (agapetos kai monos uios) as "only legitimate son", which is not unreasonable given Philo's parallel comments in On Sacrifice X.43. It also parallels Josephus
' use (see above 20:20) for a legitimate son of the main royal wife.
Likewise in the later Jewish Septuagint revisions:
In contast in Proverbs 4:3 Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion all have monogenes of a mother's only-begotten son where legitimacy is not an issue.
opinions are divided on whether Jesus is referred to as "only-begotten God" or "only-begotten Son", in John 1:18.
This textual issue is complicated by the scribal abbreviations of nomina sacra
where "G-d" and "S-n" are abbreviated in the Greek manuscripts by ΘΣ and ΥΣ (theta
-sigma
vs upsilon
-sigma
) increasing the likelihood of scribal error.
Adjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
monogenēs pais only child, or only legitimate child, special child, and also on its own as a noun
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
; o monogenēs "the only one", or "the only legitimate child".
The term is notable outside normal Greek usage in two special areas: firstly the use of the term in the cosmology of Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
. Secondly on the use of the term in the Gospel of John
Gospel of John
The Gospel According to John , commonly referred to as the Gospel of John or simply John, and often referred to in New Testament scholarship as the Fourth Gospel, is an account of the public ministry of Jesus...
. As concerns the use by Plato there is broad academic consensus, generally following the understanding of the philosopher Proclus
Proclus
Proclus Lycaeus , called "The Successor" or "Diadochos" , was a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher, one of the last major Classical philosophers . He set forth one of the most elaborate and fully developed systems of Neoplatonism...
(412–485 AD).
In Christian usage however there have been three disputed questions concerning the word.
1. Does the word mean "only begotten" - as traditionally in the King James Version, with emphasis on actual birth or begettal, fathering, or does it simply mean "only" with no reference to the act of begettal?
2. Does the word mean "only, single, unique" son or daughter, or "special, privileged, favourite, legitimate" son or daughter?
3. Related textual critical issues to John 1:18.
Lexical entry
In A Greek-English Lexicon of LiddellHenry Liddell
Henry George Liddell was Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University, dean of Christ Church, Oxford, headmaster of Westminster School , author of A History of Rome , and co-author of the monumental work A Greek-English Lexicon, which is still used by students of Greek...
& Scott
Charles Scott Sherrington
Sir Charles Scott Sherrington, OM, GBE, PRS was an English neurophysiologist, histologist, bacteriologist, and a pathologist, Nobel laureate and president of the Royal Society in the early 1920s...
the following main definition is given:
- A. the only member of a kin or kind: hence, generally, only, single, "child" (pais, παῖς) HesiodHesiodHesiod was a Greek oral poet generally thought by scholars to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. His is the first European poetry in which the poet regards himself as a topic, an individual with a distinctive role to play. Ancient authors credited him and...
, Works and DaysWorks and DaysWorks and Days is a didactic poem of some 800 verses written by the ancient Greek poet Hesiod around 700 BC. At its center, the Works and Days is a farmer's almanac in which Hesiod instructs his brother Perses in the agricultural arts...
376; HerodotusHerodotusHerodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
HistoriesHistories (Herodotus)The Histories of Herodotus is considered one of the seminal works of history in Western literature. Written from the 450s to the 420s BC in the Ionic dialect of classical Greek, The Histories serves as a record of the ancient traditions, politics, geography, and clashes of various cultures that...
7.221; cf. Gospel of JohnGospel of JohnThe Gospel According to John , commonly referred to as the Gospel of John or simply John, and often referred to in New Testament scholarship as the Fourth Gospel, is an account of the public ministry of Jesus...
1.14; JosephusJosephusTitus Flavius Josephus , also called Joseph ben Matityahu , was a 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian and hagiographer of priestly and royal ancestry who recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the 1st century AD and the First Jewish–Roman War, which resulted in the Destruction of...
, Antiquities of the JewsAntiquities of the JewsAntiquities of the Jews is a twenty volume historiographical work composed by the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus in the thirteenth year of the reign of Roman emperor Flavius Domitian which was around 93 or 94 AD. Antiquities of the Jews contains an account of history of the Jewish people,...
32.1; Hesiod TheogonyTheogonyThe Theogony is a poem by Hesiod describing the origins and genealogies of the gods of the ancient Greeks, composed circa 700 BC...
, concerning HecateHecateHecate or Hekate is a chthonic Greco-Roman goddess associated with magic, witchcraft, necromancy, and crossroads.She is attested in poetry as early as Hesiod's Theogony...
. - 2. unique, of (to on, τὸ ὄν), ParmenidesParmenidesParmenides of Elea was an ancient Greek philosopher born in Elea, a Greek city on the southern coast of Italy. He was the founder of the Eleatic school of philosophy. The single known work of Parmenides is a poem, On Nature, which has survived only in fragmentary form. In this poem, Parmenides...
8.4; “εἷς ὅδε μ. οὐρανὸς γεγονώς” PlatoPlatoPlato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
TimaeusTimaeus (dialogue)Timaeus is one of Plato's dialogues, mostly in the form of a long monologue given by the title character, written circa 360 BC. The work puts forward speculation on the nature of the physical world and human beings. It is followed by the dialogue Critias.Speakers of the dialogue are Socrates,...
.31b, cf. ProclusProclusProclus Lycaeus , called "The Successor" or "Diadochos" , was a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher, one of the last major Classical philosophers . He set forth one of the most elaborate and fully developed systems of Neoplatonism...
Institutio Theologica 22; “θεὸς ὁ μ.” Friedrich PreisigkeFriedrich PreisigkeFriederich Preisigke was a German Egyptologist and papyrologist.-Life:Born in Dessau, he attended the Cathedral gymnasium at Brandenburg an der Havel, later became a clerk in the German Post Office and in 1897 he was appointed director of the telegraph lines in Berlin...
's Sammelbuch 4324.15.
A typical example:
- "The Egyptians told me that Maneros was the only son of their first king, who died prematurely, and this dirge was sung by the Egyptians in his honor; and this, they said, was their earliest and their only chant." (HerodotusHerodotusHerodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
Histories 2:79)
But note that this example does not necessarily rule out sons by concubines.
Classical Greek texts
The following examples are taken from the Greek text uses of monogenēs in the Perseus database.- Hesiod, Theogony 426 "Also, because she is an only child (monogenēs), the goddess Hecate receives not less honor, … 446 So even though she is her mother’s only child (monogenēs) "Hecate is honored amongst all the immortal gods."
- Hesiod, Works and Days 375 "There should be an only son (monogenes) to feed his father’s house, for so wealth will increase in the home; but if you leave a second son you should die old."
- Herodotus 2.79.3 "Maneros was the only-born (monogenes) of their first king, who died prematurely,"
- Herodotus 7.221.1 "MegistiasMegistiasMegistias or Themisteas was a soothsayer from Acarnania who died in the Battle of Thermopylae. He traced his lineage to Melampus. Despite knowing that death was certain, Megistias stayed and fought...
sent to safety his only-born (o monogenes, as noun) who was also with the army." - Plato, Laws 3, 691e: The Athenian stranger to Megillus and Clinias: "To begin with, there was a god watching over you; and he, foreseeing the future, restricted within due bounds the royal power by making your kingly line no longer single (monogenes) but twofold. In the next place, some man, (LycurgusLycurgus (Sparta)Lycurgus was the legendary lawgiver of Sparta, who established the military-oriented reformation of Spartan society in accordance with the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi...
) in whom human nature was blended with power divine, observing your government to be still swollen with fever, blended the self-willed force." - Plato, Critias 113d, The Story of Atlantis: "Evenor with his wife Leucippe; and they had for offspring an only-begotten (monogene) daughter, Cleito."
- Plato, Timaeus 31b "one only-begotten Heaven (monogenes ouranos) created."
- Plato, Timaeus 92c "the one only-begotten Heaven (monogenes ouranos)."
- Apollonius of RhodesApollonius of RhodesApollonius Rhodius, also known as Apollonius of Rhodes , early 3rd century BCE – after 246 BCE, was a poet, and a librarian at the Library of Alexandria...
, Argonautica 3:1007: "And propitiate only-begotten Hecate, daughter of PersesPerses (Titan)Perses was the son of Titan siblings, Kreios and Eurybia, and was the Titan god of destruction in mythology. He was wed to Asteria, his cousin, daughter of Titans Phoebe and Coeus. They had one child noted in mythology, Hecate, honoured by Zeus above all others as the goddess of wilderness,...
"
An exhaustive listing of monogenēs can be found in the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae
Thesaurus Linguae Graecae
The Thesaurus Linguae Graecae is a research center at the University of California, Irvine. The TLG was founded in 1972 by Marianne McDonald with the goal to create a comprehensive digital collection of all surviving texts written in Greek from antiquity to...
database.
Parmenides
The reference above found in Liddell Scott, and therefore in other lexicons, and unquestioned in Christian commentaries, to a use of monogenes by Parmenides has more recently been shown to probably be incorrect. The text of Parmenides 8. 4 is "unusually corrupt". Plutarch
Plutarch
Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
read the text as holomeles (οὐλομελές, "whole-limbed"). The original reconstruction by H. Diels (1897) left the text open. Later editions of Diels-Kranz defer to Plutarch's reading in the reconstructed Greek text. Others since reconstructed the text as monogenes (only-begotten) but John R. Wilson (1970) argues that this is inconsistent with context and suggests the text as monomeles (one-limbed). The inconsistency is accepted by H. Schmitz (1988) but Schmitz proposes instead a return to holomeles (οὐλομελές, "whole-limbed").
- Parmenides B.8:4 "[..] being unborn is undestroyable, for it is holomeles/monogenes/monomeles and unshakable and endless;"
Interpretation of Classical Greek usage
PlatoPlato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
's Timaeus
Timaeus (dialogue)
Timaeus is one of Plato's dialogues, mostly in the form of a long monologue given by the title character, written circa 360 BC. The work puts forward speculation on the nature of the physical world and human beings. It is followed by the dialogue Critias.Speakers of the dialogue are Socrates,...
speaks twice of a monogenes Heaven:
- Timaeus 31b, "In order then that [the world] might be solitary, like the perfect animal, [the creator] made not two worlds (cosmos) or an infinite number of them; but there is and ever will be one only-begotten heaven (ouranos) created."
- Timaeus 92c "We may now say that our discourse about the nature of the universe has an end. The world has received animals, mortal and immortal, and is fulfilled with them, and has become a visible animal containing the visible-the sensible God who is the image of the intellectual, the greatest, best, fairest, most perfect-the one only begotten heaven.
The subject is the creation, or begetting, of heaven (ouranos) as a unique birth, not the birth of more than one cosmos. Comparison is also made with the begetting of animals and birds from the souls of "light-minded men".
In commentary on Plato Proclus
Proclus
Proclus Lycaeus , called "The Successor" or "Diadochos" , was a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher, one of the last major Classical philosophers . He set forth one of the most elaborate and fully developed systems of Neoplatonism...
considers that if a visible god like the ouranos is to resemble higher invisible gods, then the visible cosmos must be monogenes.
Greek Old Testament usage
The word occurs five times in the Septuagint:- Judges 11:34 "she was his (i.e. JephthaJephthaJephthah is a character in the Old Testament's Book of Judges, serving as a judge over Israel for a period of six years . He lived in Gilead and was a member of the Tribe of Manasseh. His father's name was also Gilead...
's) only child (e monogenes, female)" - Psalm 22:20 "deliver my soul from the sword, my only begotten (life?) from the hand of the dog."
- Psalm 25:16 "I am an only child (monogenes) and poor."
- Psalm 35:17 "deliver my soul from their mischief, my only begotten (life?) from the lions."
- Jeremiah 6:26 "as one mourns for an only child (monogenes)"
- Tobit 8.17 "they were both an only child (duo monogeneis, of two different parents)
- Wisdom of SolomonBook of WisdomThe Book of Wisdom, often referred to simply as Wisdom or the Book of the Wisdom of Solomon, is one of the deuterocanonical books of the Bible. It is one of the seven Sapiential or wisdom books of the Septuagint Old Testament, which includes Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon ,...
7:22 "there is in her (i.e. Wisdom) a spirit quick of understanding, holy, as an only child (monogenes), manifold."
Interpretation of Greek Old Testament usage
Psalm 22:20, 35:17 and Wisdom 7:22 appear to be personifications of the soul (in Hebrew a masculine noun) and wisdom (feminine noun) as an "only son" and "only daughter" respectively.There is an increase in the use of monogenes in later versions of the Septuagint. Gen 22:2 "the beloved one whom you have loved" (ton agapeton, on egapesas) in Aquila's Greek translation uses monogenēs to translate yachid, the common Hebrew word for "only".
Greek New Testament usage
The New Testament contains 8 uses, all adjectival:- Luke 7:12 "her only son (o monogenes uios)"
- Luke 8:42 "only daughter (e monogenes thugater)"
- Luke 9:38 "only son (o monogenes uios)"
- John 1:18 textual variation in manuscripts: a. "only begotten" God (monogenes theos / b. "the only begotten Son" (o monogenes uios)
- John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son (o monogenes uios)"
- John 3:18 "he has not believed in the name of God’s only son (o monogenes uios)"
- Heb.11:17 "only-legitimate son (o monogenes uios)" – since AbrahamAbrahamAbraham , whose birth name was Abram, is the eponym of the Abrahamic religions, among which are Judaism, Christianity and Islam...
also fathered IshmaelIshmaelIshmael is a figure in the Hebrew Bible and the Qur'an, and was Abraham's first born child according to Jews, Christians and Muslims. Ishmael was born of Abraham's marriage to Sarah's handmaiden Hagar...
, from the slave girl HagarHagar (Bible)Hagar , according to the Abrahamic faiths, was the second wife of Abraham, and the mother of his first son, Ishmael. Her story is recorded in the Book of Genesis, mentioned in Hadith, and alluded to in the Qur'an...
, and six other sons, from KeturahKeturahAccording to the Hebrew Bible, Keturah or Ketura was the woman whom Abraham, the patriarch of the Israelites, married after the death of his wife, Sarah. Keturah bore Abraham six sons, Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah....
. - 1 John 4:9 "God sent his only Son (o monogenes uios) into the world"
Hellenistic Jewish usages
- Josephus, AntiquitiesAntiquities of the JewsAntiquities of the Jews is a twenty volume historiographical work composed by the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus in the thirteenth year of the reign of Roman emperor Flavius Domitian which was around 93 or 94 AD. Antiquities of the Jews contains an account of history of the Jewish people,...
2.181 "Dan had an only child (monogenes paidos), Usi." - Josephus, Antiquities 2.263 "Jephtha’s daughter, she was also an only-born (monogenes) and a virgin"
- Josephus, Antiquities 20.20 "Monobazus, the king of Abiadene… had an elder brother, by Helena also, as he had other sons by other wives besides. But he openly placed all his affections on this his favourite son (monogenes) Izates, which was the origin of the envy which his other brethren, by the same father, bore to him; and on this account they hated him more and more, and were all under great affliction that their father should prefer Izates before them."
- Psalms of SolomonPsalms of SolomonOne of the Pseudepigrapha, the Psalms of Solomon is a group of eighteen psalms that are not part of any scriptural canon...
18:4 : "Thy chastisement comes upon us (in love) as the first born (prototokos) and the only begotten son (monogenes)."
Early Patristic usage
- Clement of Rome 25 – "the phoenix is the only one [born] (monogenes) of its kind"
- Nicene CreedNicene CreedThe Nicene Creed is the creed or profession of faith that is most widely used in Christian liturgy. It is called Nicene because, in its original form, it was adopted in the city of Nicaea by the first ecumenical council, which met there in the year 325.The Nicene Creed has been normative to the...
- "And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God." - Macarius MagnesMacarius MagnesMacarius Magnes is the author of an apology against a Neo-Platonic philosopher of the early part of the fourth century, contained in a manuscript of the fifteenth century discovered at Athens in 1867 and edited by C. Blondel...
403AD. The Monogenes, title of a treatise.
Gnosticism and magic texts
Platonic usage also impacted Christian usage, for example in GnosticismGnosticism
Gnosticism is a scholarly term for a set of religious beliefs and spiritual practices common to early Christianity, Hellenistic Judaism, Greco-Roman mystery religions, Zoroastrianism , and Neoplatonism.A common characteristic of some of these groups was the teaching that the realisation of Gnosis...
. In Tertullian's Against the Valentinians, he gives the name to one of their thirty aeons as monogenes in a syzygy
Aeon (Gnosticism)
In many Gnostic systems, the various emanations of God, who is also known by such names as the One, the Monad, Aion teleos , Bythos , Proarkhe , the Arkhe , are called Aeons...
with makaria, Blessedness.
- Friedrich PreisigkeFriedrich PreisigkeFriederich Preisigke was a German Egyptologist and papyrologist.-Life:Born in Dessau, he attended the Cathedral gymnasium at Brandenburg an der Havel, later became a clerk in the German Post Office and in 1897 he was appointed director of the telegraph lines in Berlin...
's Sammelbuch (1922) 4324,15 contains a 3rdC. AD magic invocation by an Egyptian girl called Capitolina placing a papyrus in a box to invoke various gods, pagan, Jewish and Christian, including "Iao Sabaoth Barbare..., God in Heaven, the Only-Begotten" to help her cast a love potion on a young man called Nilos:
- "I summon you divinities by the bitter necessities that bind you and by those carried away by the wind IO IOE PHTHOUTH EIO PHRE. The Greatest Divinity YAH SABAOTH BARBARE THIOTH LAILAMPS OSORNOPHRI EMPHERA, to God in the heavens, the only-begotten (ho Monogenes) who shakes the depths, sending out the waves and the wind. Thrust forth the spirits of these divinities wherever the box... "
Similar content is found in:
- Karl Preisendanz Greek Magical PapyriGreek magical papyriThe Greek Magical Papyri is the name given by scholars to a body of papyri from Graeco-Roman Egypt, which each contain a number of magical spells, formulae, hymns and rituals. The materials in the papyri date from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD...
(1973) Vol.1 p124. - R. Wunsch Antike Fluchtafeln (Ancient Curse Tablets, 1912) 4,36.
The problem with magical inscriptions, on papyri, walls or ostraca, is firstly dating the source, secondly that magical spells by their nature tend to be syncretic. In the example above lovestruck Capitolina summons "all the divinities" to release the spirits of "all who drowned in the Nile, the unmarried dead" etc. to sway the heart of her young man, yet she may not have known enough about Judaism or Christianity, or even Gnostic Christianity, to know whether "YAHWEH SABAOTH" and "the Only-Begotten" were the same god or not.
Later uses in Christianity
- a troparionTroparionA troparion in Byzantine music and in the religious music of Eastern Orthodox Christianity is a short hymn of one stanza, or one of a series of stanzas. The word probably derives from a diminutive of the Greek tropos...
, O Monogenes YiosO Monogenes YiosO Monogenes Yios , is a hymn ascribed to Pope Athanasius I of Alexandria. It was written after the First Ecumenical Council at Nicea as an affirmation of the Christological Formula set down by Athanasius. It was first used in the Church of Alexandria but was distributed by Athanasius to all the...
, "Only Begotten Son," ascribed to Justinian IJustinian IJustinian I ; , ; 483– 13 or 14 November 565), commonly known as Justinian the Great, was Byzantine Emperor from 527 to 565. During his reign, Justinian sought to revive the Empire's greatness and reconquer the lost western half of the classical Roman Empire.One of the most important figures of...
(527 - 565) - in Latin: UnigenitusUnigenitusUnigenitus , an apostolic constitution in the form of a papal bull promulgated by Pope Clement XI in 1713, opened the final phase of the Jansenist controversy in France...
, a papal bullPapal bullA Papal bull is a particular type of letters patent or charter issued by a Pope of the Catholic Church. It is named after the bulla that was appended to the end in order to authenticate it....
issued by Pope Clement VIPope Clement VIPope Clement VI , bornPierre Roger, the fourth of the Avignon Popes, was pope from May 1342 until his death in December of 1352...
in 1343.
Interpretation of New Testament usage
Some aspects of the meaning, or range of meanings, of monogenēs in the New Testament are disputed. Lexicons of the New Testament both reflect and determine debate:- Bauer BDAG
- Kittel TDNT
- Balz EDNT
- Friberg ALGNT
1. Begetting
The entrance of "only begotten" into the English Bible was not directly from mono-genes but from the Latin of the Vulgate, which had uni-genitus (one-begotten):- John 3:16 sic enim dilexit Deus mundum ut Filium suum unigenitum daret ut omnis qui credit in eum non pereat sed habeat vitam aeternam. (Latin VulgateVulgateThe Vulgate is a late 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It was largely the work of St. Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of the old Latin translations...
) - John 3:16 God lufede middan-eard swa þæt he sealde hys akennedan sune þæt nan ne for-wurðe þe on hine ge-lefð. Ac habbe þt eche lyf. (Hatton Gospels c.1160 AD)
- John 3:16 For God lovede so the world, that he yaf his oon bigetun sone, that each man that bileveth in him perishe not, but have everlastynge lijf.(Wyclif's BibleWyclif's BibleWycliffe's Bible is the name now given to a group of Bible translations into Middle English that were made under the direction of, or at the instigation of, John Wycliffe. They appeared over a period from approximately 1382 to 1395...
1395 AD)
The meaning of monogenēs was part of early Christian christological
Christology
Christology is the field of study within Christian theology which is primarily concerned with the nature and person of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament. Primary considerations include the relationship of Jesus' nature and person with the nature...
controversy regarding the Trinity
Trinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons : the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial . Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being...
. It is claimed that Arian
Arianism
Arianism is the theological teaching attributed to Arius , a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt, concerning the relationship of the entities of the Trinity and the precise nature of the Son of God as being a subordinate entity to God the Father...
arguments that used texts that refer to Christ as God's "only begotten Son" are based on a misunderstanding of the Greek word monogenēs and that the Greek word does not mean "begotten" in the sense we beget children but means "having no peer, unique".
Alternatively in favour that the word monogenēs does carry some meaning related to begetting is the etymological origin mono- (only) + -genes (born, begotten). The question is whether the etymological origin
Etymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
was still "live" as part of the meaning when the New Testament was written, or whether semantic shift
Semantic change
Semantic change, also known as semantic shift or semantic progression describes the evolution of word usage — usually to the point that the modern meaning is radically different from the original usage. In diachronic linguistics, semantic change is a change in one of the meanings of a word...
has occurred. Limiting the semantic change of monogenes is that the normal word monos is still the default word in New Testament times, and that the terms co-exist in Greek, Latin and English:
- Greek monos → Latin unicus → English "only"
- Greek monogenes → Latin unigenitus → English "only-begotten"
Also there is a question about how separate from the idea of -genes birth and begetting the cited uses of monogenes in the sense of "unique" truly are. For example the ending -genes is arguably not redundant even in the sense of "only" as per when Clement of Rome
Pope Clement I
Starting in the 3rd and 4th century, tradition has identified him as the Clement that Paul mentioned in Philippians as a fellow laborer in Christ.While in the mid-19th century it was customary to identify him as a freedman of Titus Flavius Clemens, who was consul with his cousin, the Emperor...
(96 AD), and later Origen
Origen
Origen , or Origen Adamantius, 184/5–253/4, was an early Christian Alexandrian scholar and theologian, and one of the most distinguished writers of the early Church. As early as the fourth century, his orthodoxy was suspect, in part because he believed in the pre-existence of souls...
, Cyril and others, employ monogenes to describe the rebirth of the phoenix
Phoenix (mythology)
The phoenix or phenix is a mythical sacred firebird that can be found in the mythologies of the Arabian, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Chinese, Indian and Phoenicians....
. At issue is whether Clement is merely stressing monos unique, or using monogenes to indicate unique in its method of rebirth, or possibly that there is only one single bird born and reborn. Likewise in Plato's Timaeus, the "only-begotten and created Heaven", is still unique in how it is begotten, in comparison to the begetting of animals and men, just as Earth and Heaven give birth to Ocean and Tethys. Of the Liddell Scott references for "unique" (monogenes being used purely as monos) that leaves only Parmenides, which (as above) is no longer considered a likely reading of the Greek text.
Additionally the New Testament frame of reference for monogenes is established by uses of the main verb "beget", and readings of complimentary verses, for example:
- Heb. 1:5 "For unto which of the angels said he at any time, "Thou art my Son (uios mou ei su), this day have I begotten thee (ego semeron gegenneka se)"? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?" (citing Ps.2:7, also cited Acts 13:33, Heb.5:5)
- 1 John 5:18 "We know that everyone who is begotten of God does not sin" or
- 1 John 5:18 "We know that the One who is begotten of God does not sin"
2. Uniqueness
This issue overlaps with, and is interrelated with, the question of begetting above. Interpretation of the uniqueness of monogenes in New Testament usage partly depends on understanding of Hellenistic Jewish ideas about inheritance. PhiloPhilo
Philo , known also as Philo of Alexandria , Philo Judaeus, Philo Judaeus of Alexandria, Yedidia, "Philon", and Philo the Jew, was a Hellenistic Jewish Biblical philosopher born in Alexandria....
stated:
- On Abraham 194: "In the second place, after he [Abraham] had become the father of this [Isaac] his loved-and-only (agapetos kai monos) son, he, from the moment of his birth, cherished towards him all the genuine feelings of affection, which exceeds all modest love, and all the ties of friendship which have ever been celebrated in the world."
- On Sacrifice X.(43): "And he [Jacob] learnt all these things from Abraham his grandfather, who was the author of his own education, who gave to the all-wise Isaac all that he had, leaving none of his substance to bastards, or to the spurious reasonings of concubines, but he gives them small gifts, as being inconsiderable persons. For the possessions of which he is possessed, namely, the perfect virtues, belong only to the perfect and legitimate son;"
In his 1894 translation of Philo Charles Duke Yonge
Charles Duke Yonge
Charles Duke Yonge was an English historian, classicist, and cricketer. He wrote numerous works of modern history, and translated several classical works.-Life:...
rendered "loved-and-only son" (agapetos kai monos uios) as "only legitimate son", which is not unreasonable given Philo's parallel comments in On Sacrifice X.43. It also parallels Josephus
Josephus
Titus Flavius Josephus , also called Joseph ben Matityahu , was a 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian and hagiographer of priestly and royal ancestry who recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the 1st century AD and the First Jewish–Roman War, which resulted in the Destruction of...
' use (see above 20:20) for a legitimate son of the main royal wife.
Likewise in the later Jewish Septuagint revisions:
- Gen 22:2 of Aquila "take your son Isaac, your only-begotten (monogenes) son whom you love"
- Gen 22:12 of Symmachus "now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only-begotten (monogenes) son, from me.”
In contast in Proverbs 4:3 Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion all have monogenes of a mother's only-begotten son where legitimacy is not an issue.
3. Textual issues in John 1:18
In Textual criticismTextual criticism
Textual criticism is a branch of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of transcription errors in the texts of manuscripts...
opinions are divided on whether Jesus is referred to as "only-begotten God" or "only-begotten Son", in John 1:18.
- monogenes theos Sinaiticus, P66Papyrus 66Papyrus 66 is a near complete codex of the Gospel of John, and part of the collection known as the Bodmer Papyri.-Description:...
, VaticanusCodex VaticanusThe Codex Vaticanus , is one of the oldest extant manuscripts of the Greek Bible , one of the four great uncial codices. The Codex is named for the residence in the Vatican Library, where it has been stored since at least the 15th century...
etc. - o monogenes uios Alexandrinus, Textus ReceptusTextus ReceptusTextus Receptus is the name subsequently given to the succession of printed Greek texts of the New Testament which constituted the translation base for the original German Luther Bible, the translation of the New Testament into English by William Tyndale, the King James Version, and for most other...
, PeshittaPeshittaThe Peshitta is the standard version of the Bible for churches in the Syriac tradition.The Old Testament of the Peshitta was translated into Syriac from the Hebrew, probably in the 2nd century AD...
etc.:
This textual issue is complicated by the scribal abbreviations of nomina sacra
Nomina sacra
Nomina sacra means "sacred names" in Latin, and can be used to refer to traditions of abbreviated writing of several frequently occurring divine names or titles in early Greek language Holy Scripture...
where "G-d" and "S-n" are abbreviated in the Greek manuscripts by ΘΣ and ΥΣ (theta
Theta
Theta is the eighth letter of the Greek alphabet, derived from the Phoenician letter Teth...
-sigma
Sigma
Sigma is the eighteenth letter of the Greek alphabet, and carries the 'S' sound. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 200. When used at the end of a word, and the word is not all upper case, the final form is used, e.g...
vs upsilon
Upsilon
Upsilon is the 20th letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 400. It is derived from the Phoenician waw. The name of the letter is pronounced in Modern Greek, and in English , , or...
-sigma
Sigma
Sigma is the eighteenth letter of the Greek alphabet, and carries the 'S' sound. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 200. When used at the end of a word, and the word is not all upper case, the final form is used, e.g...
) increasing the likelihood of scribal error.