Monogenes

Phoebe Ann said:

What does it mean? Why is it translated "Only Begotten?" How was Jesus "begotten?" He isn't the only son of God. Humans become sons of God when they are adopted into God's family.

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It's translated this way because it was commonly used this way in Greek. However, the basic form of the word could mean one of two very different things. "genea" can mean conceiving and bearing descendants -- "generations". However, it describes those descendants of the same kind as well -- "generic".

Both are known to theology.

1. "Eternal generation" describes the state of the Eternal Sonship of Christ -- that Christ "proceeds from the Father" eternally, that He is somehow begotten of God from eternity.

CS Lewis describes this with an interesting illustration. Set a book on a tabletop. Now set another book atop it. The second book is supported by the first. But ... what if the second had forever supported the first, back into eternity? What if there were no process of setting the one book upon the other, but they had both always existed? That's essentially the concept of eternal generation".

2. The Son of God is also uniquely "of the same kind" as God. "monogenes" also describes the unique kind of Son that Jesus is. Jesus is the native Son, the God the Son, which none of us adopted sons can claim to be. We're dependent on the native Son; we're imputed the native Son's attributes; and we are not identified as "monogenes" of God.