Jesus was the unique, one of a kind, son of God

Jesus was a unique, one of a kind, son of God. The place in the scripture that says he is "the only begotten son of God" is not a proper translation. I have edited the verses to indicate the proper translation.

John 1:18: No man has seen God at any time; the unique, one of a kind, Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared Him.

John 3:16: For God so loved the world, that he gave his unique, one of a kind, Son, that whosoever believes on him should not perish, but have eternal life.

John 3:18: He that believes on him is not judged: he that believes not has been judged already, because he has not believed on the name of the unique, one of a kind, Son of God.

1 John 4:9: Herein was the love of God manifested in us, that God has sent his unique, one of a kind, Son into the world that we might live through him.

Since we also are placed as sons of God when we received the Holy Spirit then Jesus cannot be the only son of God, but he is the unique, one of a kind, son of God, because he was the second man specially created of God, Adam being the first and as a result both are called the son of God.

Notice: The Greek word for only begotten in John 3:16 is μονογενής (monogenēs). For many years it was thought that this word came from two other Greek words: μόνος (monos), meaning “only,” and γεννάω (gennaō), meaning “beget,” or “bear.”

However, this is a misunderstanding of the two Greek terms. Modern linguistic research has shown that “gennaō” comes from the word γένος (genos) and means “class,” or “kind.”[1] Other lexicographers agree with this conclusion.[2] For the word to be translated in English as only begotten, the Greek word would have been μονογέννητος (monogennetos) instead of μονογενής (monogenes).

Therefore, it is more accurate to translate μονογενής as only, one of a kind, or unique rather than only begotten.

Further support of this idea can be found in the New Testament’s use of this word. The word μονογενής appears nine times in the New Testament. Luke uses this term three times (7:12, 8:42, 9:38), John four times as a designation of Jesus’ relationship to God (John 1:14, 18; 3:16, 18; 1 John 4:9), and the author of Hebrews uses this Greek word once (Hebrews 11:17). In the Luke passages, μονογενήςis is translated as only by most English translations. A clear meaning of this word can be found in Hebrews 11:17. Here Isaac is said to be Abraham’s only begotten (μονογενής) son. However, Abraham had other children as well (Ishmael, Midian, Jokshan, Ishbak, Medan, Shuah, and Zimran). Therefore, Isaac was unique (μονογενής) in the sense that he was the child of the promise and the others were not. In this context, μονογενής does not mean that Isaac was Abraham’s only begotten son (as defined by OED), but rather that he was the only unique son of Abraham.

In conclusion

The phrase only begotten is apparently based on the word’s supposed etymology. It is a mistake to base the understanding of a word’s meaning on its etymology (rather than its usage), especially if the etymology is wrong, as is the case of the translation “only begotten”. Monogenes does not mean only begotten neither in its etymology nor its usage and therefore only confuses the reader when reading it as such. Having a correct etymological understanding of the word “monogenes” helps the reader to understand that the lord Jesus was the unique, one of a kind son of God. He was specially created in the womb of Mary and thus had a beginning at his conception. He at his birth became the beginning of God’s new creation and we in him become new creation of God also! Amazing grace.

[1] William Arndt, Frederick W. Danker and Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 658.

[2] See Moulton, Milligan, Thayer, and Abbott-Smith