Why is Jesus Called the Only Begotten?

The Gospel of John tells us that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).”¹ Here the English Standard Version uses the word “only” to translate the Greek word monogeneis.² Other modern translations, such as the New International Version, render the same word “one and only.”³ However, most remember the rendering from King James Version —“only begotten.”⁴

This is where things get interesting. The other day someone ask “Why is Jesus called the only begotten?” The person wondered whether or not “only begotten” implied Jesus was a created being. The guy’s confusion is understandable, for a number of folks have made the mistake of supposing that “only begotten” means Jesus is a created being. For example, the Jehovah’s Witnesses purport that only begotten means “[Jesus] is the only one of his kind, the only one whom God himself created directly without the agency or cooperation of any creature.”⁵

We can say that Jesus is the “only begotten” in the sense of having a unique status.⁶ This much is true. However, there is more to the picture. For example, the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us that Abraham was willing to offer up his “only” [monogeneis] son Isaac (Heb. 11:17-18; cf. Gen. 22). This does not mean Isaac was an only child. The patriarch definitely had other children (Gen. 16:1-15; 25:1-4). Rather, the biblical writer is identifying Isaac as the only one of Abraham’s offspring bearing the unique status as the son of promise — the one whom Yahweh would fulfill his covenant (Gen. 15, 17 and 18).

Scriptures teach the eternal existence of the Son of God. The Apostle John tells us: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made….the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only [monogeneis] Son from the Father, full of grace and truth…No one has ever seen God; the only [monogeneis] God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known” (John 1:1-3, 14, 18). D.A. Carson notes, “the beloved Son, the incarnate Word (1:14), himself God at the Father’s side —just as in v. 1 the Word was simultaneously God and with God — has broken the barrier that made it impossible for human beings to see God, and has made him known.”⁷

Jesus’ identification as the first and last precludes any notion of the Son being a created being. The Book of Revelation opens with Jesus appearing to John on the island of Patmos and saying, “I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore” (Rev. 1:17-18; cf. 2:8; 22:13). These words echo back to divine oracles spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god” (Isa. 44:6; cf. 41:4; 48:12). “It is remarkable,” writes Richard Bacukham, “that precisely this title is the one by which Christ declares his identity in Revelation 1:17. It does not designate him a second god, but includes him in the eternal being of the one God of Israel who is the only source and goal of all things.”⁸ Jesus is thus equated with the eternally existent one true God of Israel.

Jesus is unique in that He is incarnate deity. He is the Living Word. It is through Him that people can see God and through Him they can receive everlasting life. Christ is the perfect union of divinity and humanity. If humanity is to be united with their Heavenly Father, it can only happen through the Son. In this way, Jesus is most exceptional, matchless and incomparable. He is God’s only Son.

— WGN

1. All Scripture cited from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), unless noted.
2. The same is true for the New Revised Standard Version.
3. “One and only” is also used in the Christian Standard Bible and New Living Translation.
4. The New King James Version and New American Standard Bible, likewise, use “only begotten.”
5. Insight on the Scriptures, Vol. 2, https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1200003331
6. The Greek word monogeneis pertains to “being the only one of its kind within a specific relationship, one and only, only, or “being the only one of its kind or class, unique (in kind.)” (William Arndt, Frederick W. Danker, and Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000], 658).
7. D.A. Carson,The Gospel According to John (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1991), 134.
8. Richard Bauckham, New Testament Theology: The Theology of the Book of Revelation, ed. James D.G. Dunn (United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 58.