The "Only Begotten Son"

At the recent Biven meeting in Houston, we had the opportunity to renew our acquaintance with Clifton Payne, a close friend of Dwight Pryor whom we first met at Pryor’s meeting in November 2008. Clifton has written two articles on the Jerusalem Perspective, both are worth reading. I have summarized one article.

The "Only Begotten Son": In scripture, Yeshua is called, "The only begotten Son" (John 1:18, NKJV), "His (God) only begotten Son" (John 3:16 & 18, NKJV), and "You are My Son, Today I have begotten You" (Heb 5:5, NKJV). The phrase "only begotten Son" is not commonly used these days and the NIV renders the passage of John 3:16 as, "one and only son". So what does "only begotten Son" really mean? After all, Adam was called the son of God and we are referred to as sons of God (Gal 4:6).

In the book of Hebrews, Isaac is called the "only begotten son" of Abraham (Heb 11:17). Now Abraham had more than one son, but Isaac, not Ishmael is called by this phrase. God told Abraham to "Take now your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering" (Gen 22:1-2). In this passage, God referred to Isaac as "your only son" seemingly ignoring Ishmael.

The term "only" (yahid) is normally used to mean only child (Gen 22:12, Judg 11:34, Jer 6:26), but it also can mean "lonely", "solitary", or "precious" (Ps 22:20, 35:17). It is noteworthy that the second century BC Septuagint translated Gen 22:2 as "beloved". This term is used in Matt 17:5, "This is my beloved Son" (NKJV). In these examples, we see that "only (one)" can refer to the one who is unique and especially loved.

The Jewish Midrash (Exodus Rabbah 1) identifies many character flaws in Ishmael including idolatry for which Abraham was obligated to drive Ishmael from his house. This left Isaac as the one and only beloved son. The Bible says that Abraham "begot" Isaac (Gen 25:19), but the Bible never uses that phrase in reference to Ishmael. The Exodus Rabbah 1 Midrash teaches us that Abraham begot Isaac "to teach you that he was like his father in all things". Accordingly, "begot" means "to have the full nature of and to be exactly like", as it is written, "Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and name him Seth" (Gen 5:3, NKJV). In the same way, Yeshua "is the image and glory of God" (1 Cor 11:7).

Both Isaac and Yeshua can be said to be unique and especialy beloved of their father: each was the exact likeness and image of his father, and the full nature of his father was in each man. Hence, each was called "the only begotten son" of his father. It would seem to follow that both you and I can also be "begotten" of the father as we are made into the image of God.

See the Jerusalem Perspective for the complete article.