Monogenēs

Monogenes (μονογενής) has two primary definitions, "pertaining to being the only one of its kind within a specific relationship" and "pertaining to being the only one of its kind or class, unique in kind". Its Greek meaning is often applied to mean "one of a kind, one and only". ''Monogenēs'' may be used as an adjective. For example, ''monogenēs pais'' means only child, only legitimate child or special child. ''Monogenēs'' may also be used on its own as a noun. For example, ''o monogenēs'' means "the only one", or "the only legitimate child".

The word is used in Hebrews 11:17-19 to describe Isaac, the son of Abraham. However, Isaac was not the only-begotten son of Abraham, but was the chosen, having special virtue. Thus Isaac was "the only legitimate child" of Abraham. That is, Isaac was the only son of Abraham that God acknowledged as the legitimate son of the covenant. It does not mean that Isaac was not literally "begotten" of Abraham, for he indeed was, but that he alone was acknowledged as the son that God had promised.

The term is notable outside normal Greek usage in two special areas: in the cosmology of Plato and 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).

Lexical entry

In ''A Greek-English Lexicon'' of Liddell and Scott the following main definition is given:

:A. the only member of a kin or kind: hence, generally, only, single, "child" (''pais'', παῖς) Hesiod, ''Works and Days'' 376; Herodotus ''Histories'' 7.221; cf. Gospel of John 1.18; Josephus, ''Antiquities of the Jews'' 32.1; Hesiod ''Theogony'', concerning Hecate.
:2. unique, of (to on, τὸ ὄν), Parmenides 8.4; “εἷς ὅδε μ. οὐρανὸς γεγονώς” Plato Timaeus.31b, cf. Proclus ''Institutio Theologica'' 22; “θεὸς ὁ μ.” Friedrich Preisigke'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." (Herodotus ''Histories'' 2:79)

Usage in Greek texts

Classical Greek texts

The following examples are taken from th
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 " Megistias 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, (Lycurgus) 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 Rhodes, ''Argonautica'' 3:1007: "And propitiate only-begotten Hecate, daughter of Perses"

An exhaustive listing of ''monogenēs'' can be found in the ''Thesaurus Linguae Graecae'' database.

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 Hermann Diels (1897) left the text open. Later editions of
Diels-Kranz defer to Plutarch's reading in the reconstructe
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

Plato's Timaeus speaks twice of a ''monogenes'' Heaven:

* Timaeus 31b, "In order then that he worldmight be solitary, like the perfect animal, he creatormade 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 considers that if a visible god like the ''ouranos'' is to resemble higher invisible gods, then the visible cosmos must be ''monogenes''.

Septuagint usage

The word occurs five times in the Septuagint:
* Judges 11:34 "she was his (i.e. Jephtha'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'')" have not found any text with this*Tobit 3:15 "I am the only (monogenes) daughter of my father"
* Tobit 8.17 "they were both an only child (''duo monogeneis'', of two different parents)
* Wisdom of Solomon 7:22 "there is in her (i.e. Wisdom) a spirit quick of understanding, holy, as an only child (''monogenes''), manifold."

Interpretation

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 9 uses, 6 adjectival, 3 times as a noun:
* Luke 7:12 "her only son (''o monogenes uios'')"
* Luke 8:42 "only daughter (''e monogenes thugater'')"
* Luke 9:38 "only born (''o monogenes)''"
* John 1:14 "only begotten" (monogenes)
* 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-begotten Son (''o monogenes uios'')"
* John 3:18 "he has not believed in the name of God’s only-begotten son (''o monogenes uios'')"
* Heb.11:17 "only-begotten" of the promise (''o monogenes'' ) As the next verse proves: ^"of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called:". ''
* 1 John 4:9 "God sent his only-begotten Son (''o monogenes uios'') into the world"

Hellenistic Jewish usages

* Josephus, Antiquities 2.181 "Dan had an only child (''monogenes pais''), 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 Solomon 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 orn(''monogenes'') of its kind"
* Nicene Creed - "And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God."
* Macarius Magnes 403AD. ''The Monogenes'', title of a treatise.

Gnosticism and magic texts

Platonic usage also impacted Christian usage, for example in Gnosticism. In Tertullian's ''Against the Valentinians'', he gives the name to one of their thirty aeons as ''monogenes'' in a syzygy with ''makaria'', Blessedness.

*Friedrich Preisigke'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 Papyri'' (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 troparion, '' O Monogenes Yios'', "Only Begotten Son," ascribed to Justinian I (527 - 565)
* in Latin: ''Unigenitus'', a papal bull issued by Pope Clement VI 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

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 Vulgate)
:*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.''(Wycliffe's Bible 1395 AD)

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:
: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 (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 complementary 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"

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. Philo stated:
*On Abraham 194: "In the second place, after he brahamhad become the father of this saachis 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 acoblearnt 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 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:
* 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 contrast in Proverbs 4:3 Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion all have ''monogenes'' of a mother's only-begotten son where legitimacy is not an issue.

Textual issues in John 1:18

In textual criticism, opinions are divided on whether Jesus is referred to as "only-begotten God" or "only-begotten Son", in John 1:18. According to the majority of modern scholars the external evidence favors ''monogenês theos'' as the original text. This reading exists primarily in the Alexandrian text-types. ''Textus Receptus'', the manuscript tradition behind the KJV and many other Bibles, reads ''ho monogenês huios''. This reading ranks second in terms of the number of manuscripts containing it, and has a wider distribution among text-types.
* ''monogenes theos'' P75, P66, Vaticanus, Sinaiticus etc.
* ''o monogenes uios'' Alexandrinus, Textus Receptus, Peshitta etc.

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.Allen Wikgren footnote in Metzger ''A Textual Commentary on The Greek New Testament'' United Bible Societies 2nd ed. p. 170."It is doubtful that the author would have written ''monogenes theos'' which may be a primitive transcriptional error in the Alexandrian tradition ΘϹ/ΥΣ. At least a 'D' decision would be preferable. A.W."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Monogenes
Childbirth
New Testament Greek words and phrases
Gospel of John