Apparent Contradictions
Notwithstanding the clearest statements about Jesus' deity and equality with God the Father, we still encounter passages that call for explanation. One example occurs in what is undoubtedly the most beloved and well-known text in all the Bible, John 3:16: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son.". The problem is: How can the text say Jesus was "begotten" if He was eternal? Did someone beget Him, just like the rest of us?
The expression "only begotten" is one word in the Greek language: monogenes, occurring nine times in the New Testament, with five of those references applying to Jesus and all five in the writings of John (John 1:14, 18; 3:16, 18; 1 John 4:9). It is significant that all five references occur in the writings of the very author who from the start of his Gospel seeks to establish the deity of Jesus Christ. Indeed, he commences precisely on that point: "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). It would have been incredible that this Jewish writer would have attributed the title of Deity to someone he considered a created being.
In each of the following passages, the word monogenes refers to someone other than Jesus. If you are unfamiliar with the Greek, guess from the translation where the word falls. What do you think it means?
The boy from Nain who had died is described as an "only son" ("the only son of his mother"). No emphasis here on the idea of begetting. Rather, the focus is on singleness, onlyness, uniqueness. The same is true in regard to Jairus' daughter-she was his "only...daughter", his monogenes, the only one of a kind, his only child; in this sense she was unique. That is also the point of Luke 9:38.
The weight of scholarly opinion favors the view that monogenes, linguistically, does not place emphasis on begetting or begotten, but rather on the oneness of a kind, on the idea of uniqueness. How does this idea, too, help us better understand the great sacrifice made for us at the Cross?
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