Reniaa
by simplicity do you mean the simplicity produced by reason and logic?
eidt: besty I hope you don't mind that we are straying far from your original topic
John 1:18 - New International vs New World Translation
by besty 21 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Narkissos
Leolaia,
Although I may have criticised the "only-begotten" translation in the past (it's still questionable as an overtranslation), I have come to think again about it and now I do agree with you: while the etymology or "original" meaning of monogenès is definitely not only-begotten that probably makes very little difference at the semantic level, since (1) the gi(g)nomai and gennaô lexical families constantly overlap in Greek usage (genesis, gennèsis), and (2) the theme of divine begetting / birth is particularly conspicuous in Johannine literature (1:12f; 3:3ff; 8:41ff; 9:2ff; 16:21; 18:37; 1 John 2:29; 3:9ff; 4:7ff; 5:1ff,18). So a connection between gennaô and monogenès is far from impossible in the author's mind. Btw I wonder if there is not something similar to the qualitative distinction between autogenes and allogenes in later Gnostic texts in the Johannine Prologue use of eimi (to be) vs. ginomai (to become, to come to be), pointing to a "pure" and "impure" kind of divine emanation. But it would not be applicable to the Fourth Gospel as a whole since it also remarkably portrays the devil as "self-generated" (8:44).