John 1:18
From Textus Receptus
- ΚΑΤΑ ΙΩΑΝΝΗΝ 1:18 θεὸν οὐδεὶς ἑώρακε πώποτε· ὁ μονογενὴς υἱός, ὁ ὢν εἰς τὸν κόλπον τοῦ πατρὸς, ἐκεῖνος ἐξηγήσατο.
(Textus Receptus, Novum Testamentum, Theodore Beza, 5th major edition. Geneva. 1598)
- John 1:18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
(King James Version, Pure Cambridge Edition 1900)
- John 1:18 No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.
(King James Version 2016 Edition, 2016) - buy the revised and updated printed 2023 Edition New Testament here
Commentary
Only Begotten God?
The Codex Vaticanus has the corruption μονογενὴς θεός only begotten God here in John 1:18 whereas most manuscripts read μονογενὴς υἱός only begotten Son.
P66 and P75 both read θεός. In the Alexandrian tradition, scribes used Nomina Sacra abbreviations (ΥC/ΘC). ΥC for son and ΘC for God.
Support for the reading 'uios' ('son')
- Uncials: A (5th century), E, F, G, H, Delta, Theta, Psi (these last 7 codices from the 8th and 9th centuries);
- Miniscules: family 1, family 13, 28, 157, 180, 205, and numerous others;
- Lectionaries: majority;
- Ancient versions: several Old Latin mss. (including "a," 4th century), the Vulgate, the Curetonian version of the Old Syriac (3rd-4th century), the Harclean and Palestinian Syriac, the Armenian and Ethiopic versions, the earlier of two Georgian versions (9th century), and the Old Church Slavonic version;
- Church fathers: Hippolytus (d. 235), Letter of Hymenaeus (about 268), Alexander, Eustathius, Chrysostom, Theodore, Tertullian, Jerome, and countless others.
Old Latin
The Old Latin manuscripts of John 1:18 read, "deum nemo uidit umquam. unigenitus filius. qui est in sinu patris. ipse narrauit." The word "unigenitus" means, "only begotten, only; of the same parentage." (Dr. John C. Traupman, Latin Dictionary, 323).
Church Fathers
Many early church writers quote the verse as it stands in the Textus Receptus including Theodotus, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Hymenaeus, Alexander, Eustathius, Eusebius, Hegemonius, Ambrosiaster, Faustinus, Athanasius, Titus-Bostra, Gregory Nazianzus, Ambrose, Chysostom, Synesius, Jerome, Theodore, Augustine, Proclus, Varimadum, Theodoret, Fulgentius, John-Damascus and Priscillian.
While the majority of orthodox church fathers support the reading monogenes heios, so also do the majority of existing Greek cursive manuscripts. The reading contained in the majority of uncials (such as A, C3, K, W, Q, Y, D, P, X, and 063), Old Latin, Latin Vulgate, and the Old Syrian also support the reading monogenes heios. [1]
Irenaeus
In 202 AD, Irenaeus wrote,
- "For 'no man,' he says, 'hath seen God at any time,' unless 'the only-begotten Son of God, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared [Him].' For He, the Son who is in His bosom, declares to all the Father who is invisible." (Against Heresies, 3:11:6)
Archelaus Acts of the Disputation with the Heresiarch Manes:
- Furthermore, there is but one only inconvertible substance, the divine substance, eternal and invisible, as is known to all, and as is also borne out by this scripture: "No man hath seen God at any time, save the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father."
Ignatius
- And there is also one Son, God the Word. For "the only-begotten Son," saith [the Scripture], "who is in the bosom of the Father." (Epistle of Ignatius to the Philippians)
Origen
- and in these, "No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." (Origen Against Celsus Book II)
Tertullian
- "Well, (I must again ask) what God does he mean? It is of course the Father, with whom was the Word, the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, and has Himself declared Him. (Tertullian Against Praxeas)
Other
"Moreover, that the Son of God was not produced out of what did not exist, and that there never was a time when He did not exist, is taught expressly by John the Evangelist, who writes this of Him:
'The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father.' The divine teacher, because he intended to show that the Father and the Son are two and inseparable from each other, does in fact specify that He is in the bosom of the Father." (W.A. Jurgens, The Faith Of The Early Fathers, Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, p. 300).
Augustine
Augustine (430 AD) wrote:
- "For Himself hath said: No man hath seen God at any time, but the Only-Begotten Son, Who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. Therefore we know the Father by Him, being they to whom He hath declared Him." (Homilies On The Gospel According To St. John, XLVII:3).
The Nicene Creed
The Nicene Creed (344 AD) states:
- "We believe in one God the Father Almighty, . . . And in His Only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ, who before all ages was begotten from the Father, God from God, Light from Light, by whom all things were made, in heaven and on the earth, visible and invisible . . ." (as cited from Athanasius: De Synodis, II:26).
Chalcedon Creed 451 A.D.
Chalcedon Creed 451 A.D.:
- Therefore, following the holy fathers, we all with one accord teach men to acknowledge one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, at once complete in Godhead and complete in manhood, truly God and truly man, consisting also of a reasonable soul and body; of one substance with the Father as regards his Godhead, and at the same time of one substance with us as regards his manhood; like us in all respects, apart from sin; as regards his Godhead, begotten of the Father before the ages.
Athanasian Creed 500 A.D.
Athanasian Creed 500 A.D.:
- The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten. The Son is of the Father alone, not made nor created but begotten. The Holy Spirit is of the Father and the Son, not made nor created nor begotten but proceeding. And in this Trinity there is nothing before or after, nothing greater or less, but the whole three Persons are coeternal together and coequal.
- The right faith therefore is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man. He is God of the substance of the Father, BEGOTTEN BEFORE THE WORLDS, and He is man of the substance of His mother born in the world; perfect God, perfect man subsisting of a reasoning soul and human flesh; equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, inferior to the Father as touching His Manhood.
King James Translation
Many criticize the King James Version by pointing to Hebrews 11:17 claiming the word should be "unique":
- "By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son."
The usual argument is that Isaac was not the only son of Abraham at the time, but that Ishmael had already been born of Abraham's union with Hagar.
But a brief look at Genesis 22:2,12 and 16 shows that God referred to Isaac as "thine only son Isaac". Ishmael is not even taken into consideration by God since he was not the promised seed with whom God made the covenant of grace. As far as God was concerned, there was only one "only begotten son" of Abraham, and he is the spiritual type of the only begotten Son of God who became the lamb that was sacrificed for the sins of God's people.
Monogenes
Many modern Greek dictionaries falsely define the Greek monogenes as “unique” or “one of a kind” or “only”. Because Westcott and Hort were faced with the false teaching of God being “begotten” or “born” from something, they had to invent a new definition of “monogenes” (only begotten), so they changed it to “unique” or “one of a kind” to fit in with the Vaticanus manuscripts error. Monogenes is from "monos" and "genos" meaning exactly - "only" & "begotten". This is elementary to all who know real Greek, to etymologists, and historians. But because there is a bias to cover us for their favorite manuscript in John 1:18 without making known the utter corruptness of Codex Vaticanus, they redefined it to fit in. After a while this new definition permeated new versions, so that now in most places “only begotten” is called “one and only” or “unique” in many common verses such a John 3:16.
Dean Burgon
Dean Burgon believed that the reason that the Revised Version committee including Wescott and Hort did not include it in their version because they were ashamed of the reading:
- “We are offended at reading (against S. John 1:18) – ‘Many very ancient authorities read God only begotten:’ whereas the ‘authorities’ alluded to read ‘monogenes Theos’ – whether with or without the definite article prefixed – which, as the Revisionists are perfectly well aware, means ‘the only-begotten God,’ and no other thing. Why then did they not say so? Because, we answer, they were ashamed of the expression.” John William Burgon, Dean of Chichester College, The Revision Revised, pg. 182.
Burgon also gives us some insigth into possible reasons for the texts corruption:
- "It will be remembered that St. John in his grand preface does not rise to the full height of his sublime argument until he reaches the eighteenth verse. He had said (ver. 14) that ‘the Word was made flesh,’ &c.; a statement which Valentinus was willing to admit.
- But, as we have seen, the heresiarch (Valentinus) and his followers denied that ‘the Word’ is also the Son of God. As if in order to bar the door against this pretense, St. John announces (ver. 18) that ‘the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him’: thus establishing the identity of the Word and the Only begotten Son. What else could the Valentinians do with so plain a statement, but seek to deprave it?" John William Burgon, Dean of Chichester College, The Causes of the Corruption of the Traditional Text of the Holy Gospels, pg.215.
Westminster Confession
- "In the unity of the Godhead there be three Persons of one substance, power, and eternity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. The Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; the Holy Ghost eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son." (Westminster Confession, Chapter III.)
Philip Schaff
Even the liberal scholar Philip Schaff agreed:
- "The Gnostics of the second century, especially the Valentinians and Basilidians, made abundant use of the fourth Gospel, which alternately offended them by its historical realism, and attracted them by its idealism and mysticism… Valentinus himself (according to Tertullian) tried either to explain it away, or he put his own meaning into it…
- "In the Gnostic systems, especially that of Valentinus, "pleroma" signifies the intellectual and spiritual world, including all Divine powers or aeons, in opposition to the "kenoma," i.e., the void, the emptiness, the material world… They included in the pleroma a succession of emanations from the Divine abyss, which form the links between the infinite and the finite; and they lowered the dignity of Christ by making him simply the highest of those intermediate aeons." Philip Schaff, First Period: The Church Under The Apostles, Chapter XII. (emphasis added).
- "Valentinus or Valentine is the author of the most profound and luxuriant, as well as the most influential and best known of the Gnostic systems… He was probably of Egyptian Jewish descent and Alexandrian education… He made much use of the Prologue of John’s Gospel and the Epistles to the Colossians and Ephesians; but by a wild exegesis he put his own pantheistic and mythological fancies into the apostolic words, such as Logos, Only Begotten, Truth, Life, Pleroma, Ecclesia…
- Tertullian says his heresy ‘fashioned itself into as many shapes as a courtesan who usually changes and adjusts her dress every day.’" Philip Schaff, Second Period: Ante-Nicene Christianity, Chapter XI. (emphasis added).
George Vance Smith
Most modern version supporters claim that no doctrines are affected by the changes of modern versions, George Vance Smith was a Unitarian scholar who worked on the RV translation committee and wrote a book explaining that the new RV readings favor Unitarian doctrines. He called it: Texts and margins of the revised New Testament: affecting theological doctrine briefly reviewed. He shares some candid thoughts about the doctrinal impact or, potential doctrinal impact of changes in the RV, some of which reflect changes in the base-text and some of which are translational.
Smith stated in relation to the John 1:18 reading "only-begotten God" which the ERV revisers only placed in the margin that "there is nothing at all unlikely in the supposition that this may be the true original reading of this verse" (p. 19). Yet he nevertheless regarded that reading as "a greater blow than the popular or orthodox theology of our day would have been able to bear" (p. 17).
This reading which Smith considered inimicable to orthodox theology is now printed as the primary reading in the Nestle and UBS editions, and as a result dominates in modern English translations.
Allen Wikgren
It is not only supporters of the Textus Receptus or King James Version that believe "only begotten God" is a scribal error. There is also division between modern textual critics as to whether μονογενὴς θεός should be the correct reading.
Nestle-Aland Committee Member Allen Wikgren who served on the UBS-4, quoted in Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary On The Greek New Testament, 2nd edition, pg. 170.
- "It is doubtful that the author (i.e., John) would have written monogenes theos, which may be a primitive, transcriptional error in the Alexandrian tradition."
Bart Erhman
Modern Versions
Most modern bible versions such as the NIV and NASB, that are translated corrupted texts read “God” instead of “Son.”
- NASB: “No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.”
- ESV: “No one has every seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known."
NIV
The corrupt NIV is continuously changing:
- NIV 1973 - "No man has ever seen God, but God the only Son, who is at the Father's side, has made him known.
- NIV 1984 - "No one has ever seen God, but God the one and only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known."
- NIV 2011 - "No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known."
- NIV 1984 with a footnote "or only begotten"
- TNIV 2001, NIV 2011 with footnote "some manuscripts - but the only Son".
Dr. Edwin H. Palmer, who served as the executive secretary of the Committee on Bible Translation for the New International Version, had this to say concerning this passage:
- "A striking case of where the KJB, following bad Greek copies of the original text, changed the original is (sic) John 1:18. The KJB says, 'No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.' John 1:18, as inspired by the Holy Spirit, is one of those few clear and decisive texts that declare that Jesus is God. But, scripts, altered what the Holy Spirit said through John, calling Jesus 'Son.' Using the archaic language of the KJB, the verse should read: 'No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten God, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.' Or to say it in a modern and elegant way: 'No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only [Son], who is at the Father's side, has made him known' [NIV]." (The NIV: The Making of a Contemporary Translation Kenneth L. Barker editor, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986, p. 143).
"God the One and Only" NIV 1984 with a footnote "or only begotten"
New World Translation
New World Translation of the Jehovah's Witnesses in 2013 says:
- "No man has seen God at any time, the only begotten god, who is at the Father's side, he has explained him."
NET
- 38tn Or "of the unique one." Although this word is often translated "only begotten," such a translation is misleading, since in English it appears to express a metaphysical relationship. The word in Greek was used of an only child (a son [Luke 7:12, 9:38] or a daughter [Luke 8:42]). It was also used of something unique (only one of its kind) such as the mythological Phoenix (1 Clement 25:2). From here it passes easily to a description of Isaac (Heb 11:17 and Josephus, Ant., 1.13.1 [1.222]) who was not Abraham's only son, but was one-of-a-kind because he was the child of the promise. Thus the word means "one-of-a-kind" and is reserved for Jesus in the Johannine literature of the NT. While all Christians are children of God (tevkna qeou', tekna qeou), Jesus is God's Son in a unique, one-of-a-kind sense. The word is used in this way in all its uses in the Gospel of John (1:14, 1:18, 3:16, and 3:18).
James White
James White who was a critical consultant for the Lockman Foundation's New American Standard Bible[2] believes that monogenes theos is the correct reading as he says in his article "Purpose and Meaning of "Ego Eimi" in the Gospel of John "In Reference to the Deity of Christ"[3] that :"John describes Jesus as the unique God (monogenes theos) in John 1:18." Also
- "The only "Him" in the context is Jesus; hence, for John, Isaiah, when he saw Yahweh on His throne, was in reality seeing the Lord Jesus. John 1:18 says as much as well."
Greek
Textus Receptus
- 1550 θεὸν οὐδεὶς ἑώρακεν πώποτε· ὁ μονογενὴς υἱός, ὁ ὢν εἰς τὸν κόλπον τοῦ πατρὸς ἐκεῖνος ἐξηγήσατο (Stephanus)
- 1598 θεὸν οὐδεὶς ἑώρακε πώποτε· ὁ μονογενὴς υἱός, ὁ ὢν εἰς τὸν κόλπον τοῦ πατρὸς, ἐκεῖνος ἐξηγήσατο. (Beza)
Other Greek
- 1881 Θεὸν οὐδεὶς ἑώρακεν πώποτε· μονογενὴς θεὸς ὁ ὢν είς τὸν κόλπον τοῦ πατρὸς ἐκεῖνος ἐξηγήσατο. (Westcott and Hort)
References
- 1. John 1:18 - "only begotten Son" by Thomas Holland
- 2. "Lockman Contributor Page". The Lockman Foundation. Retrieved 2006-10-10.
- 3. Ego Eimi Purpose and Meaning of Ego Eimi in the Gospel of John In Reference to the Deity of Christ by James White
