Examining the Greek

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Examining the Greek

The New Testament was originally written in Greek. All other Bibles of whatever language involve translation from this language. Each language presents certain problems in trying to render exact meaning as God intended. And not all languages are the same.

Let me illustrate. The English word lead can refer to the physical element, such as a lead pencil or a lead weight. It can also refer to taking charge, in verb form—to lead other people. It can even be a noun when speaking of one who “takes the lead.”

Another example would be the word love in English. The Greeks had three words (agape, philia, and eros) that can correctly be translated love in English. Agape means the love of God; philia means brotherly love; eros means romantic or erotic love.

Only by checking the context of words such as these can one discern the intended—the correct!—meaning of why the word is used. It has to be understood in relation to the overall topic of discussion, or confusion can result.

For example, the words fetus and embryo do not appear anywhere in the Bible. If God used these words, because there was a Greek equivalent that could be translated this way, it would make matters easier to understand when considering a Christian’s status in this life. Since God does not use these words (the Greek contains no similar words), He expects us to discern His intent by other means. He does not leave people to guess what His Word is saying.

Consider. All through the Bible, pregnancy is depicted by the expression “with child,” not “with fetus” or “with embryo.” (Abortionists, take note!)

This sets up our discussion of the Greek word gennao (the word Christ used when speaking to Nicodemus). Gennao can be translated either as “to beget” or “to be born.” Both are technically correct. We will learn why.

Let’s examine several different Greek-English dictionaries (lexicons) definitions:

Strong’s: “gennao: to procreate (prop. of the father, but by extension of the mother); fig. to regenerate: — bear, beget, be born, bring forth, conceive, be delivered of, gender, make, spring.”

George Ricker Berry’s: “gennao: to beget, give birth to, produce, effect; pass., to be begotten, born.” Young’s: “gennao: to beget, bring forth.”

Liddell and Scott’s: “gennao: to beget, of the father; to bear, bring forth, of the mother; II, to generate, produce.” (Webster’s defines generate: “to beget; procreate.”)

Thayer’s: “gennao: 1. properly: of men begetting children. Matt. 1:1-16; Acts 7:8, 29; foll. by ek with gen. of the mother, Matt. 1:3, 5, 6; more rarely of women giving birth to children. Luke 1:13, 57; 23:29; John. 16:21, etc. 2. a. univ. to engender, cause to arise, excite…d. peculiarly in the Gospel and 1st Ep. of John, of God conferring upon men the nature and disposition of His sons, imparting to them spiritual life i.e. by His own holy power, prompting and persuading souls to put faith in Christ and live a new life consecrated to Himself.”

Eleven different Greek-English lexicons show that the word gennao can either refer to begettal by the father (begotten) or birth by the mother (born). We checked five more, not on this list, and found the same definition. Gennao can either be translated “born” or “begotten,” depending on context.

Gennao is actually found 97 times in the New Testament. Here is a breakdown of how it is variously translated: begat, 49; be born, 39; bear, 2; gender, 2; bring forth, 1; be delivered, 1; is born, 1; been born, 1; was born, 1.

It has been said that the English language is the best language for an author to use because it has an extremely large number of words, which carry very subtle differences in meaning and nuance of meaning. The vast majority of people read the Bible in English. It is our responsibility to primarily make its meaning clear in this language, before translating to others.

While the Greeks had one word that encompassed the entire process from begettal to birth, English carries two different words. One, begettal, starts the process—another, born, depicts its completion. It is natural for English-speaking people to think of conception and begettal as having happened, without yet having a birth. This would be foreign to a Greek-speaking person of 2,000 years ago. He would think of begettal as the primary meaning, with the entire rest of the process, that culminated in the birth, as the secondary meaning. Those who speak English talk of one’s birthdate as when he separated from the womb. This would carry a different meaning for one who spoke Greek, because he would see the birth as part of a nine-month process from begettal, but would still have only the word gennao to represent all of the process.

The Bible simply does not use different words to distinguish between born and unborn children. The Greek word (brephos) translated “babe” in Luke 1:41—“the babe leaped in her womb”—is the same Greek word translated “infants” in Luke 18:16—“then they also brought infants to him that He might touch them.”

In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word (ben) translated “children” in Genesis 25:22—“the children struggled together within her”—is the same Hebrew word translated “son” in Exodus 2:10—“and the child [Moses] grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter.” In the first case, the children were unborn, and, in the second case, it was a young Moses growing up.

These scriptures reveal God’s mind and how He views an unborn child (embryo or fetus) as a human being. In other words, when referring to children in the womb (begotten) or out of the womb (born), God makes no distinction. All those who believe in the kind of mass murder politely referred to as abortion ought to heed what God’s Word reveals about His view!

It is important to understand, however, that all of the various scholars quoted here, and many others, put primary emphasis on begettal by the Father as the meaning of gennao.

After all, the words genesis, gender, genitals and genealogy all have to do with beginnings. Men understand this and thereby leave little doubt as to the proper emphasis on the meaning of gennao!

Defining “Beget”

It would be helpful to briefly explain the English verb “beget,” or its adjective form, “begotten.”

Webster’s Dictionary definition of beget is: “1: to procreate, as the father: sire. 2: Cause.” Above, I quoted the definition from the New English Dictionary of Historical Principles: “begetting, the action or process of generating or producing…”

Numerous dictionaries offer a great many synonyms for this word. Webster’s defines a synonym as “one of two or more words or expressions of the same language that have the same or nearly the same meaning.” Let’s examine several:

“beget 1. father, sire, procreate, generate, engender, get; breed, propagate, reproduce, spawn; impregnate, Biol. fecundate, Biol. fertilize” (J.I. Rodale, The Synonym Finder, p. 106).

“conceive 4. beget, procreate, father, sire; generate, engender, propagate, reproduce; become impregnated, become pregnant, become fertilized, come with child” (Ibid., pp. 206-207).

“impregnate 1. inseminate, make pregnant, get with child or young, Sl. knock up; fertilize, fructify, make fruitful, fecundate; beget, create, procreate, engender, generate” (Ibid., p. 545).

“engender 2. beget, create, procreate, father, sire, sow the seeds of, conceive, give birth to; breed, propagate, reproduce, spawn” (Ibid., p. 353).

“Beget, get, and sire imply the procreating act of the male parent; usually ‘beget’ is preferred in reference to men and ‘get’ and ‘sire’ in reference to animals [he that begets a fool does it to his sorrow – Prov. 17:21] [a bull may be unable to get calves]” (Webster’s New Dictionary of Synonyms).

“begotten past part. of beget” beget 1. Obsolete a. To acquire b. To get (with child) 2. To procreate as father or sire; to generate” (Webster’s New International Dictionary Second Edition).

“beget 1 (obsolete): to acquire especially through effort 2a: to procreate as the father: SIRE b: to give birth to: BREED 3 (obsolete): to make a woman pregnant” (Webster’s Third New International Dictionary).

“beget 1. To acquire (usually by effort) – 1602. 2. To procreate, generate; occasionally said of both parents ME [Middle English]. b. GET (with child) – 1611. 3. Theologically applied to the relationship of the Father to the Son in the Trinity ME” (Shorter Oxford English Dictionary).

Here is the definition of “Reproduction, Procreation” from Roget’s International Thesaurus, 4th Edit: “169.10 Fertilize, fructify, fecundate, fecundify; impregnate, inseminate, spermatize; get with child or young; pollinate or pollinize, pollen; cross-fertilize, cross-pollinate or crosspollinize, cross-pollen.”