Re: TEKNA and hUIOS considered
Paul Zellmer (pzellmer@ix.netcom.com)
Fri, 21 Mar 1997 17:00:47 -0500
Martin A. Childs wrote:
>
> > While your John 1 passage exemplifies why you have the problem with
> > "only begotten," I would suggest that you consider the arguments based
> > on the observations that John reserves hUIOS for Jesus alone, that
> > believers are called TEKNA in the Johannine writings. Admittedly,
> > neither word is explicit in John 1:14, but it does appear that John does
> > distinguish TEKNA and hUIOS in his writings, which could well imply that
> > MONOGENOUS PARA PATROS refers to his concept of hUIOS and not to TEKNA,
> > as found in 1:12.
>
> I have looked into this issue and feel you have somewhat misunderstood the
> distinction that can be made. I write because I have seen this
> misunderstanding put forward in a few places places in the literature.
>
> While it is clearly the case that John prefers the term TEKNA in his
> references to the believers, it is just as clearly the case that John does
> not "reserve" the term hUIOS for Jesus alone. hUIOS is rather the general
> term for "son" in John's gospel:
>
[examples deleted]
I'll concede that my statement was too general. I was thinking of the
words used in conjunction with the genitive QEOU. As you noted, the
only instance which could even be interpreted as referring to believers
calls them hUIOI FWTOS.
Touchè, my friend.
Paul