This is all a matter of definitions and framing. Theology has introduced a lot of invented words, concepts, and frameworks into this discussion. First off, when you do this you are essentially admitting you are having difficulty both understanding the matter and communicating what you think. You have to make up words to describe your thoughts, words not in the scripture. The introduction of new words, phrases, and definitions serves to fog the actual evidence. We do not need this. Just read the words from scripture. The same have also introduced frameworks, that is preconceived
contexts designed to lead the reader, it will, "lead you down the garden path" to where they want you to go. Step off that garden path, and their premise disappears and you are left with the simple evidence.
If I were a clone of my father, I would, essentially, be the same
biological person. The
Word came out of "the womb" of God. He is
spiritually the same person.
From my book "A Revelation of Who Jesus Is".
The Womb Of God
It sounds odd to say God has a “womb.” In this case, the concept is metaphorical. The concept is used in the context that the Son existed in the bosom of the Father and after that He “issued forth” from the Father. Therefore, the Word/Son is of the same substance and identity as the Father.
Traditionally, Christians have taken Psalm 110 to be the words of the Father to the Son. From verse 1:
“The Lord said to my lord…
The immediate, pre-creation relationship of the Word is described as a child in the
womb of God.
Psalms 110:1 (Brenton - Septuagint)
"The Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. The Lord shall send out a rod of power for thee out of Sion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. With thee is dominion in the day of thy power, in the splendours of thy saints:
I have begotten thee from the womb before the morning."
Psalms 110:3 (Lamsa translation)
"Thy people shall be glorious in the day of thy power; arrayed in the beauty of holiness
from the womb, I have begotten thee as a child from the ages."
Psalms 110:3 Darby
3 With thee is the principality in the day of thy strength: in the brightness of the saints:
from the womb before the day star, I begot thee.
This Was The Understanding Of The Early Church Fathers.
"
From the womb, before the morning star, have I begotten thee." -
Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho
"In the splendors of Thy holiness
have I begotten Thee from the womb, before the morning star." -
Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho
“One must believe that the Son is begotten and born not from nothing, nor from some other substance
, but from the womb of the Father [
de Patris uter], that is, from his substance.” -
Church Council of Toledo 675
(In Latin, “de Patris utero” — literally
, from the uterus of the Father.)
"…it is said, ‘He who is in the bosom of the Father hath declared Him’ (John 1:18). But
that which is the womb, is the bosom also. What meaneth, 'from the womb'? (Ps 110:3) From what is secret, from what is hidden; from Myself, from My substance; this is the meaning of 'from the womb.' Let us then understand the Father saying unto the Son, '
From my womb before the morning star I have brought Thee forth." -
Augustine of Hippo
“The term derives from John 1:18, ‘No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has made him known.” The Greek text here has kolpos, ‘bosom’, but the early Syriac translators chose to render the word, not by kenpa, ’lap bosom’, but by ‘
ubba’, which has a much wider range of meaning than does kolpos and
includes ‘womb’ as well as ‘lap’.-
Sebastian Brock University of Oxford “The Luminous Eye
The earliest Syriac version of John 1:18 reads,
‘the
only-begotten Son, which is from the womb of the Father,’
This wording was kept in the Peshitta version.
Let us reiterate that we are in no wise suggesting that God is female or that He has an actual womb such as a human woman; only that this term is used several times by the ancients to describe the “begetting” of the Son from the Father. In the beginning, the Word was within God and after that was born out of God. We will expound on this relationship further.
