Tuesday 15 March 2016

John 1:14 the only begotten

"the only begotten of the Father" (John 1:14)
Almost every word in John 1:14 is simple, plain and well defined in the original text, but is obfuscated or reversed by supernatural Bible Goggles. The phrase "only begotten" is a prime example.

'Only begotten' is the Greek word "monogenes", a precise philosophical term meaning meaning the most important one (mono) of the family (genes). The word comes from Plato's Timaeus:
"the sensible [i.e. visible to the senses] God who is the image of the intellectual, the greatest, best, fairest, most perfect-the one only begotten heaven." (Timaeus 92c)
To Plato, the world of logic is the real world and the physical world is like shadows of that world flickering on a cave wall. The best possible example in any group or family (the monogenes) is the one that is closest to the abstract logical ideal. John is saying that Jesus is the ideal intellectual man.

But Paul's patented Bible Goggles cannot possibly allow "the wisdom of the Greeks" into his Bible (see 1 Corinthians 1:22-23), So Paul subtly changes changes the doctrine of "monogenes" with its clear and logical definition, to something slightly more mystical: "prototokos" or "first born":
"Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created , that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist." (Colossians 1:15-17)
Note the subtlety of the change. This is very similar to John's statement that all things were made by logic. But by removing the link with the philosophers, Paul turns this into something mysterious and supernatural, paving the way for the fourth century's violent schisms over the confusing meaning of three in one, and whether or not Jesus was a man,

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