What does "begotten" mean in the Bible and the Nicene Creed?
In one of the most popular verses in the Bible, John 3:16, we read "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (King James Version)
In the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, the old King James version of the Bible translates the genealogy of Jesus with a series of begats: Abraham begat Isaac, Isaac begat Jacob, etc. Modern translations read instead "became the father of" rather than "begat."
To "beget" is to become the Father of someone.
Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary, but begotten by God the Father.
Catholics express in the Nicene Creed the mystery of Christ's incarnation as "begotten not made." Jesus Christ was not a created being like humanity. He is not a creature. He is God.
Begotten (vs. born) expresses the divinity that was passed down from God the Father to Jesus Christ.
Perhaps C. S. Lewis put it best in his book Mere Christianity:
"We don't use the words begetting or begotten much in modern English, but everyone still knows what they mean. To beget is to become the father of: to create is to make. And the difference is this. When you beget, you beget something of the same kind as yourself. A man begets human babies, a beaver begets little beavers and a bird begets eggs which turn into little birds. . . Now that is the first thing to get clear. What God begets is God; just as what man begets is man."
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