“Only Begotten Son”
John 3:16 describes Jesus as “the only begotten Son” which means, according to the Witnesses, that Jesus was born of God, i.e., created by God, and is therefore not eternal.
(8) But “only begotten” is defined by Bauer’s Greek Lexicon as “unique (in kind) of something that is the only example of its category.”
(9) Therefore, the term “only begotten” as applied to Jesus in John 1: 14,18 and John 3:16,18 is a statement of position, not origin.
Indeed, scholars are now in agreement that the idea of “begettal” is absent from the Greek word for “only begotten.” It was once thought that the Greek word monogenes was a combination of mono (only) and gennao (to beget), but now scholars agree it is actually a combination of mono and genos (class, kind). Although the NASB still has “only begotten” in the text of John 3:16, it supplies a footnote in the margin "unique, one of His kind. " The NIV reflects the agreement among scholars in its translation of John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son. . .”
Thus, Maurice Barnett points out:
In Hebrews 11: 17, referring to Abraham, “yea he that had gladly received the promises was offering up his only begotten son,” Isaac was not his only son, nor was he the eldest. Ishmael was born before Isaac. . . . Isaac, however, occupied the position of first-born, and claimed title to the Only Begotten because he was the one of promise and purpose. The same is true in regard to Jesus. He came uniquely by promise with the purpose of human redemption.
(10)
Therefore, Jesus is the “only begotten Son,” not in the sense that he is the only being created by God himself, but in the sense that he is the one and only Son of God, unique in kind, purpose, and position. The Witnesses have nothing in this term to indicate that Jesus had a beginning and thus is not eternal.
