Open John 3 and read verse 16. You know it. Everybody knows it. It is on signs at football games.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
(John 3:16)
Theologians Bible
Now go look at a modern translation. Many of them will not say "only begotten." They will say "one and only Son," or "only Son." And if you ask why, you will be told that the Greek word does not really mean begotten, that the older translators overreached, and that "one and only" is more accurate.
I want to walk you through the actual evidence, because this one is more interesting than either side usually admits, and because the Creed you say every Sunday is standing on it.
The word
The Greek is μονογενῆ, from μονογενής. Look at the Greek line under the verse and you will see it sitting there.
The word is a compound. μόνος means only, alone, single. The second half is where the argument lives. Does it come from γεννάω, to beget, or from γένος, kind or class? If it is the first, the word means only begotten. If it is the second, it means one of a kind, unique.
I will be honest with you. The second reading has real weight behind it. Unique, one of a kind, is a defensible rendering, and the people who argue for it are not all trying to dismantle your faith.
The verse that makes it complicated
Here is where it gets interesting, and this is the part nobody brings up at coffee hour.
Open Hebrews 11 and read verse 17:
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he that received the promises offered up his only begotten son,
(Hebrews 11:17)
Theologians Bible
The same word. μονογενῆ, used of Isaac.
But Isaac was not Abraham's only begotten son. Ishmael was born first. Abraham begot Ishmael, and the Bible says so plainly. So if μονογενής strictly meant the only one ever begotten, the author of Hebrews has made a factual error about a story he is retelling in the same breath.
He has not. He means Isaac is the unique son, the son of the promise, the irreplaceable one. That is a real use of the word, and it is in Scripture.
So the people who say μονογενής can mean unique are right.
Why the Church still says begotten
Here is why that does not settle it, and this is the whole point.
The Creed does not say "only begotten" because of a lexicon entry. It says it because of what the Church had to defend.
Arius taught that the Son was created. Made. A creature, however exalted. The whole Arian crisis turns on one question: is the Son of the same essence as the Father, or is He something God produced?
The answer the Church gave was that the Son is begotten, not made. Those words are in the Creed on purpose. Begetting and making are different. When you make something you produce a thing other than yourself, out of material, by an act of will. When you beget, what comes forth shares your nature. A man begets a man. God begets God.
That is why the Fathers hammered the word. It is not decorative. It is the line between Christianity and Arianism.
Read John 1 verse 18 and see the same word again:
No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.
(John 1:18)
Theologians Bible
In the bosom of the Father. That is not the language of manufacture.
So who is right?
Both, and this is the lesson I actually want you to take away.
The lexical range of μονογενής includes unique. It also carries the sense of being brought forth from someone. Those are not contradictory. Isaac is unique because he came from Abraham and Sarah by promise. Uniqueness and origin are bound together in the word, not opposed.
So when a translation renders it "one and only," it has picked one true thing about the word and dropped another. It is not lying. It is choosing. And the thing it drops happens to be the exact thing Arius denied and the Council affirmed.
That is why I keep telling you to read the sentence and not the gloss. A word is not a definition. It is a range, and the writer picked it for reasons the range alone will not tell you.
Check it yourself
- Open John 3 and John 1 and find μονογενής in the Greek line.
- Click it. The Greek Lexicon opens with the verse attached so you see it in place.
- Now do the same in Hebrews 11:17 and hold both uses in your head at once.
- Read what the Fathers say on John 1 in the Church Fathers section. St. John Chrysostom preached a long series on the opening of John and it is in the Fathers Library in full.
Then say the Creed on Sunday and hear what you are saying. Begotten, not made. Of one essence with the Father.
Those are not old words that got left in by accident. They are the words men were exiled for.