What does it mean for the Son to be begotten of the Father?

[StephenBales]

We believe as stated in the Creed that Jesus is “begotten of the Father before all ages.” We believe also that Jesus and the Father “are one,” as Jesus Himself said in the Bible. He is co-eternal, omnipotent and omniscient and in all capacities like the Father. So what does it mean that He is “begotten” of the Father? I know it’s de fide, defined dogma; I’m not questioning anything. But what does it actually mean when we say that?

 

[Brian_K]

I believe it means to be constantly in a state of being born, and therefore constantly in the process of being made a son. Everything God does happens eternally, so there’s no, “Ok, now He’s the Son, that’s it.” It “keeps happening”, in the sense of time.

 

[De_Maria]

The way it was explained to me, it’s like looking in a mirror. As long as you’re standing there, you are begetting your reflection.

God is always begetting the Son because God loves Himself. So, in reflecting upon Himself, God literally produces His image. His Son. On the other side, the Reflection, the Son, sees Himself reflected back by the same love. That Love is the Holy Spirit.

 

[Totus_tuus118]

Bishop Robert Barron described it well …

He said that the Father from all eternity knows and loves Himself and in a great act he generates an image of Himself , which is His Son. The perfect image of the Father is the Son.

So the Son came forth from the Father , (was begotten ) . Or as it states in the creed ‘God from God , light from light , true God from true God’.

The Father and Son love each other with an infinite love that they sigh , and this breath of interchanging love between the Father and Son is personified in the Holy Spirit . The third person of the Holy trinity .

 

[Wesrock]

The Son is eternally generated from the Father. Furthermore, the Father generates from his whole nature and essence, and what is generated is a likeness of the Father. So there is an analogy to the way animals beget children from their nature that are like themselves, so calling the generation of the Son from the Father natural generation or begetting is apt.

 

[runningdude]

When a married couple has a child, they don’t go to the store and buy the individual parts to make a baby. Rather, they conceive the child together, using a process that is innate to our human nature.

When we say that God the Son is eternally begotten of the Father, we are saying that God the Son was not merely created by the Father, but that his existence and relationship to the Father is fundamental to the very nature of God.

 

[Gab123]

.” We believe also that Jesus and the Father “are one,” as Jesus Himself said in the Bible. He is co-eternal, omnipotent and omniscient and in all capacities like the Father. So what does it mean that He is “begotten” of the Father? I kn

Jesus is the Eternal Word of God. One way to understand The Father is To think of Him as the Eternal Mind who begets the Eternal Word. Being that we are made in the image and likeness of God—meaning that we have an intellect and a will—- one analogy to help us grasp God is our own ability to reason. You can think the word “Love”. Speak the word “Love” and to act out the word “Love”. Three distinct realities yet one and and the same. A mystery, The Trinity is Three distinct Persons that make up One God, thus the analogy to grasp in human terms is that God is reflected in the family—the love between a man and a woman generates another person— three individuals, one family.

Jesus taught us to call God our Heavenly Father. In theology, God is Father being that the príncipe of generation is fatherhood.

 

[Gab123]

we are saying that God the Son was not merely created by the Father, but that his existence and relationship to the Father is fundamental to the very nature of God.

NOTE: The Son was NOT created by the Father, He was Begotten, thus are one and the same. Thus the gospel of John begins:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. . . . The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

 

[irenaeuslyons]

The offspring of an eagle is an eagle. The offspring of a lion is a lion. That which is begotten, takes on the nature of the parent. So too, the eternally begotten son of God the Father, is God the Son.

 

[AlbMagno]

While I agree with the principle, your comparision could be confused as saying that there are two gods, just as an eagle and its child are separated beings.

Here we are talking of a generation within the same identity, the same ousia, the same Entity (God).

Sorry if it sounden pedantic, I know you aren’t a polytheist, but just to clarify.

 

[irenaeuslyons]

I understand your point and I regret it could be interpreted in the wrong way. The risks of using analogies with regard to anything having to do with God. I was hoping the reader already understood that the Son is one in being with the Father from the OP’s opening statement. So I was trying to say the word “begotten” says something important about the nature of the Father and Son.

 

[Bithynian]

The risks of using analogies with regard to anything having to do with God

I think the animal comparison is quite apt. It’s, in essence, similar to the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed which uses a neo-Platonic analogy, “light from light”, to characterise the “begotteness” of the relationship between Father and Son.

But you’re definitely right all analogies tend to fall somewhat short in respect to characterising God, and I think it’s important not to “press” analogies too much.

Even the Creed’s use of “light from light” tends to be somewhat odd to modern ears: we generally don’t think of light in neo-Platonic philosophy, more so as radiation behaving as waves and comprising particles (photons).

 

[JustLOL]

“Begotten” means to come from and be part of, as opposed to “made” (created).

Humans beget humans, dogs beget dogs, cows beget cows.

God created humans, dogs, cows and then they procreated from there.

If Humans can beget humans, and dogs beget dogs, and cows beget cows, it only makes sense that the Son of God was beget by Him, rather than be simply created by Him.

 

[runningdude]

NOTE: The Son was NOT created by the Father

I said that he was not created by the father.

He was Begotten , thus are one and the same. Thus the gospel of John begins:

God the Son being begotten of the father does not mean they are the same. For instance, I am begot of my mother and father, but I am not the same as them. We share a common human nature, but I am a distinct person from either.

It is a unique attribute of the divine nature that they are one but distinct. It is a unique attribute that he is eternally begotten of the father.

 

[Gab123]

It is a unique attribute of the divine nature that they are one but distinct

Yes, exactly. Thus the analogy is that the family is an image of the Holy Trinity.