Murray Harris on Monogenes

The following excerpt is taken from Murray J. Harris’ Jesus as God: The New Testament Use of Theos in Reference to Jesus, III. The Only Son, Who Is God (John 1:18), published by Baker Books, Grand Rapids, MI in 1992. All emphasis is mine.

B. The Meaning of Monogenes

Whatever one's final decision concerning the textual problem in John 1:18, the question of the meaning of monogenes remains, for all of the textual variants in the verse include this enigmatic terms.

In compound adjectives, -genes refers to derivation⁴⁵ or descent in general, rather than to birth in particular or to species. Etymologically it is related to gi(g)nesthai, not gennasthai.⁴⁶ The idea of birth, although congruous with monogenes, is in no way an essential part of its meaning (see further below).

If the first element in compounds involving -genes is a noun, the source of the derivation is thereby indicated (thus gegenes, "sprung from the earth") (F. Buchsel, TDNT 4:738). Accordingly, monogenes could mean "he who proceeded from the Unique One (= monos)" or "deriving from a single begetter" (where monogenes = ek monou genomenos). But there is no evidence that monos was a first-century title of God⁴⁷ that might have been used by Christians or borrowed by John, or that by employing the term monogenes John was combating attacks of some description on the virgin birth of Jesus or else asserting the descent of Jesus from the one true God of Israel.

If, on the other hand, the first component in a -genes compound is an adverb, the nature of the derivation is thus shown (so eugenes, "of noble descent") (F. Buchsel, TDNT 4:738). To this category the adjective monos rightly belongs. It means "of sole descent,"⁴⁸ referring to the only child in a family, a meaning attested in secular Greek literature,⁴⁹ the LXX⁵⁰ and other Jewish literature,⁵¹ and the NT.⁵² So, for example, Tobit 3:15: "I am my father's only daughter (monogenes) and he has no other child (heteron teknon, א) to be his heir."

Some, however, find the -genes element insignificant and treat monogenes merely as an emphatic or fuller form of monos⁵³ meaning "unique, unparalleled, incomparable." Others argue for this sense on the ground that the components of monogenes are monos ("alone, single") and genos ("kind, species"). Whatever is monogenes is unique with regard to genos, the "only one of its kind."⁵⁴ Thus the phoenix, whose longevity was legendary, is described in 1 Clement 25:2 as monogenes," alone of its kind," while in a passage in the Wisdom of Solomon (7:22) that enumerates the various qualities of Wisdom, she is depicted as having in her "a spirit that is quick of understanding, holy, alone in kind monogenes."

That monogenes may bear the meaning "unique" when applied to nonpersonal objects is beyond dispute. But it is less clear that this is the predominant or primary sense of the word.⁵⁵ The meaning "without siblings" does not result from the application to the sphere of the family of the category of "singularity of kind." Rather, from the personal application of monogenes to "the only member of a kin" there developed a nonfamilial and nonpersonal use in reference to "the only member of a kind."⁵⁶ Certainly in Johannine usage the conjunction of monogenes and hyios⁵⁷shows that it is not the personal uniqueness of Jesus in itself that John is emphasizing but his being "of sole descent" as the Son of God.

There is, undoubtedly, a certain overlapping between the NT monogenes, prototokos, and agapetos when applied to Christ, for each word implies his unique filial relation to God. But whereas monogenes depicts the relation of the Son to the Father, prototokos is u5ed to describe his relation to creation (Col. 1:15), including angels (Heb. 1:6), or to his spiritual kin (Rom. 8:29) by virtue of his resurrection (Col 1:18; Rev. 1:5).⁵⁸ How the meaning of monogenes could shade off into agapetos is clear. The child who is "without brothers or sisters" will naturally be the special object of parental affection.⁵⁹ An "only son" is a "beloved son."⁶⁰ For C. H. Turner the link is still closer. Adducing evidence for an old classical sense for monos of "only" and a new Judeo-Christian sense of "beloved," he defends the view that agapetos hyios should be rendered "Only Son." Whatever verdict one passes on Turner's view,⁶¹ it is of interest that the LXX renders yachid (“alone, solitary") four times by monogenes⁶² and six times by agapetos. Nevertheless, it may be that the Pauline idios hyios (Rom. 8:32) is more nearly analogous to the Johannine monogenes hyios than is the Synoptic agapetos hyios (thus Cremer 150).

Granted, then, that monogenes is generally equivalent to unicus ("sole" or "unique"), can it ever mean unigenitus ("only begotten")? Etymologically monogenes is not associated with begetting (gennasthai)⁶⁴ but with existence (gignesthai). Yet it is not surprising that monogenes soon came to acquire overtones of "begetting" or "generation"⁶⁵ for in 1 John 5:18 Christ is described as ho gennetheis ek tou theou.⁶⁶ Indeed, Alexander of Alexandria and the Antiochenes understood (ho) monogenes theos as a reference to the uniqueness of the Son's generation by the Father (Pollard, Christology 149, 169). It seems that the impulse to render monogenes by unigenitus rather than by unicus (as in the earlier Latin renderings) arose from christological dispute and in particular the desire to establish from Scripture the doctrine of the generation of the Son by and from the Father.⁶⁷ F. J. A. Hort speaks of " the almost uniform rule that unicus belongs to native Latin Creeds, unigenitus to comparatively late Greek Creeds translated into Latin" (Dissertations 51). As far as the evidence of the NT is concerned, it may be safely said that monogenes is concerned with familial relations, not manner of birth. Neither the virgin birth of Jesus nor the " eternal generation" of the Son is in John's mind when he uses the adjective monogenes.⁶⁸

This leads us to conclude that monogenes denotes "the only member of a kin or kind."⁶⁹ Applied to Jesus as the Son of God, it will mean that he is without spiritual siblings and without equals. He is "sole-born" and "peerless." No one else can lay claim to the title Son of God in the sense in which it applies to Christ.

But the connotations that monogenes derives from Johannine usage greatly enrich the epithet or title. In the Johannine corpus,⁷⁰ Jesus is monogenes because (1) he alone is hyios theou, being "of sole ‘descent.'" No one can call him brother. As in the First Epistle of John, so in the Fourth Gospel Jesus alone is hyios theou⁷¹ while believers are tekna theou⁷² (hyios theou does not occur). This distinction might be expressed in a non-Johannine idiom by saying that Christ's sonship is essential, that of believers is adoptive. (2) He is "unique" (a) in relation to the Father, because (i) both before and after his incarnation he was in the most intimate fellowship with his Father (1:18), (ii) he was the sole and matchless Revealer of the Father's love (John 3:16; 1 John 4:9), and (iii) his origin is traceable to God the Father (John 1:14;⁷³ cf. 1 John 5:18); and (b) in relation to human beings, because he is the object of human faith, the means of eternal salvation, and the touchstone of divine judgment (John 3:16, 18). (Pp. 84-87)

50. Judg. 11:34; Tob. 3:15; 6:11 (A), 15 (א); 8:17; Ps. 21:21; 24:16; 34:17; Wisd. Sol. 7:22.

51. Josephus, Ant. 1:222, 5:264. Israel is called monogenes in Pss. Sol. 18:4; cf. 4 Ezra 6:68.

52. Luke 7:12; 8:42; 9:38. In Heb. 11:17 Isaac is designated the ho monogenes of Abraham, not as the only son he fathered (cf. Ishmael, Gen. 16:15) but as the only " son of promise" or his "beloved son.” Behind the use of monogenes in later Hellenistic Jewish writings and in the NT outside John, de Kruijf finds the theme of paradoxical divine intervention to save an only child who is in a critical situation, intervention that calls for the utmost trust and fidelity (113-17). (P. 85)

58. Interpreting monogenes in the light of their view of prototokos, the Arians took the mono- to indicate that only the Son was created directly by God, all other creatures being created through the Son (Pollard, Christology, 158, 169, 212-13).

59. Concerning King Monobazus of Adiabene, Josephus (Ant. 20:20) writes: "By Helena he had an older son than Izates named Monobazus, and other children by his other wives, but it was obvious that all his favor was focused on lzates, as if he were an only son (hos eis monogenes)."

60. Cf. Josephus, Ant. 1:222: " Now Isaac was very dearly loved by his father Abraham, since he was his only son (monogene onta) and born to him on the threshold of old age through God's bounty." For evidence that in the Orphic hymns monogenes is "a hyperbolic expression of affection" meaning "'darling' or as we say, Dear One," see J. R. Harris, "Athena" 65-69...

64. Yet it is inappropriate to dismiss, as some do, the possibility that monogenes means "only begotten" on the ground that monogennetos would then have been used, for this word is never found in extant Greek literature. (Pp. 85-86)

68. That monogenes does not relate to the virgin birth of Jesus is clear from the fact that Jesus' sonship was not inaugurated by the incarnation. First John 4:14 shows that the Son assumed the additional role of Savior of the world at the incarnation; the preexistent Son became the historical Savior. On the patristic concept of eternal generation and in particular on the role of Origen in the formulation of the concept, see Wiles, "Generation.”

69. LSJ 1144 s.v. Although appeal is often made to this lexicon in support of the equation monogenes = “unique," in fact it does not list John 1:14 (the only NT occurrence cited) under that meaning, but (with a "cf.") under "only, single." (P. 87)

Further Reading

The Meaning of Monogenes