μονογενής: Difference between revisions

|txtha=μονογενές ([[μόνος]] and [[γένος]]) ([[Cicero]], unigena; Vulg. (in Luke unicus, [[elsewhere]]) and in ecclesiastical writings unigenitus), [[single]] of its [[kind]], [[only]] (A. V. [[only-begotten]]); used of [[only]] sons or daughters (viewed in [[relation]] to [[their]] parents), [[Hesiod]] theog. 426,448; [[Herodotus]] 7,221; [[Plato]], [[Critias]] 113d.; Josephus, Antiquities 1,13, 1; 2,7, 4; μονογενές [[τέκνον]] πατρί, [[Aeschylus]] Ag. 898. So in the Scriptures: μονογενῆ [[εἶναι]] τίνι (to be [[one]]'s [[only]] [[son]] or [[daughter]]), John, pp. 162ff). Hence, the [[expression]] ὁ [[μονογενής]] [[υἱός]] τοῦ Θεοῦ and [[υἱός]] τοῦ Θεοῦ ὁ μονογονης, [[μονογενής]] [[παρά]] πατρός, Green, pp. 48f)), used of Christ, denotes the [[only]] [[son]] of God or [[one]] [[who]] in the [[sense]] in [[which]] he [[himself]] is the [[son]] of God has no brethren. He is so [[spoken]] of by John [[not]] [[because]] ὁ [[λόγος]] [[which]] [[was]] ἐνσαρκωθεις in him [[was]] [[eternally]] generated by God the Father (the orthodox [[interpretation]]), or came [[forth]] from the [[being]] of God [[just]] [[before]] the [[beginning]] of the [[world]] (Subordinationism), [[but]] [[because]] by the incarnation (ἐνσαρκωσις) of the [[λόγος]] in him he is of [[nature]] or [[essentially]] Son of God, and so in a [[very]] [[different]] [[sense]] from [[that]] in [[which]] men are made by him τέκνα τοῦ Θεοῦ (ὁ ἱυος τοῦ Θεοῦ is given [[only]] to the [[historic]] Christ so called, [[neither]] the Logos [[alone]], [[nor]] Jesus [[alone]], [[but]] ὁ [[λόγος]] ὁ ἐνσαρκωθεις or Jesus [[through]] the [[λόγος]] united [[with]] God, is ὁ [[μονογενής]] [[υἱός]] τοῦ Θεοῦ. The [[reading]] [[μονογενής]] Θεός ([[without]] the [[article]] [[before]] [[μονογενής]]) in [[μονογενής]] Θεός in Scripture and Tradition in his Two Dissertations" Camb. and Lond. 1876), and seems [[not]] [[improbable]] to Harnack (in the Theol. Lit.-Zeit. for 1876, p. 541ff) (and Weiss (in Meyer 6te Aufl. at the [[passage]])), [[but]] is [[foreign]] to John's [[mode]] of [[thought]] and [[speech]] (1 John 4:9), [[dissonant]] and [[harsh]] — appears to [[owe]] its [[origin]] to a [[dogmatic]] [[zeal]] [[which]] broke [[out]] [[soon]] [[after]] the [[early]] days of the [[church]]; ([[see]] articles on the [[reading]] by Prof. Abbot in the Bib. Sacr. for Oct. 1861and in the Unitarian Rev. for June 1875 (in the [[latter]] [[copious]] references to [[other]] discussions of the [[same]] [[passage]] are given); [[see]] [[also]] Prof. Drummond in the Theol. Rev. for Oct. 1871). Further, [[see]] Grimm, Exgt. Hdbch. on Sap., p. 152 f; (Westcott as [[above]]).