l. Generation from God in the OT and Judaism. God is rarely said to ―beget‖ in the OT, but the
instances are significant. He begets the king in Pss. 2; 110; wisdom in Prov. 8:25. Generation of the king is perhaps a stereotyped formula for institution as heir, though rabbinic exegesis sees in it either affection or new creation out of troubles. What Proverbs says of wisdom is transferred to the law in Sir. 24:6. Philo calls creation a begetting but he does not think of the righteous, or of Israel, as begotten by God.
2. Generation or Adoption in the Mysteries. Sexual images are important in the mysteries but adoption rather then generation applies to initiates (in spite of attempts to prove the contrary).
3. Ps. 2:7 in the NT. This verse is much used in the NT. Its ―today‖ is referred to the resurrection of Jesus in Acts 13:33. On one reading of Lk. 3:22 it applies to his baptism. No point of time is given in Heb.
1:5; 5:5. The birth stories do not quote it (though cf. Lk. 1:35), but on the basis of the resurrection and impartation of the Spirit Jesus is for the church more than a superior human being. The new aeon comes with him. In him we see true generation from God. In faith in him believers are assured of the resurrection and have the pledge of the Spirit. Hence they also see themselves as born of God.
4. gennēthḗnai in John. John always gives the point of origin of gennēthḗnai God in 1 Jn. 2:29; Jn.
1:13, the Spirit in Jn. 3:5, water in Jn. 3:5, the flesh in Jn. 3:6, the will in Jn. 1:13. The seed of 1 Jn. 3:9 is the Spirit rather than the word. Birth from God or the Spirit is a reality but also a mystery. Statements about it are not based on experience but are made in faith and are true in virtue of the believer‘s fellowship with God (1 Jn. 1:3, 6ff.; 3:9). This birth results in doing righteousness (1 Jn. 2:29), in not sinning (3:7ff.), in love (4:7), in overcoming the world (5:4), in faith in Jesus as the Christ (5:1). Birth from above belongs first to Jesus himself (5:18) and then to believers who, as members of the new aeon, have a share in the Spirit and are thus united to Christ, passing from death to life (3:14; 5:24). This concept of divine gennán has little in common with what may be found in the mysteries; the view of piety is totally different.
génnēma. ―What is born,‖ ―fruit,‖ common in the LXX and Philo, but found in the NT only in the phrase ―brood of vipers‖ in Mt. 3:7; 12:34; 23:33.
gennētós. Common in Philo, this occurs in the NT only in the phrase ―those born of woman‖ (Mt.
11:11) to denote humans as distinct from God or angels.
artigénnētos (→ neóphytos). ―Newborn,‖ found in the NT only in 1 Pet. 2:2: ―newborn babes,‖ the reference being to the newly converted or possibly the newly baptized if the epistle, or 1:3-4:11, is a baptismal address.
anagennáō (→ palingenesía).
A. The Nonbiblical Usage. This term is usually connected with the mysteries, but attestation is rare and late. Philo does not use it, although he has anagénnēsis for Stoic rejuvenation, and Josephus uses the verb in a general sense.
B. anagennáō in 1 Peter. In 1 Peter regeneration is God‘s act (1:3). It is effected by Christ‘s resurrection (1:3) or the word (1:23). The result is a living hope (1:3). Regeneration is not a state or experience or power. Believers are posited on faith. They are given a nonmystical new beginning which sharpens the tension between present and future as they hope for an inheritance and live in fear of God (1:17). Regeneration is not cultically or sacramentally mediated; baptism is an act of faith in which one is cleansed by prayer for the good conscience received on the basis of Christ‘s resurrection. It is this
resurrection that enables us to speak of regeneration, giving it an eschatological character as a matter of faith (2:6; 1:5; 5:9), hope (1:3; 3:15), and fear of God (1:17; 2:18; 3:2, 15). The background is Jewish, i.e., hope for a new life rather than inner experience. Yet after Christ‘s resurrection the new aeon has begun and regeneration is also a present reality, though grasped as yet only in faith. [F.BÜSCHEL, I, 668-75]
geúomai [to taste, experience]
1. Strictly ―to taste,‖ ―enjoy‖; 2. figuratively ―to come to feel,‖ ―to learn by experience‖ (both good things and bad). ―To taste death‖ is a common Semitic expression; cf. also ―to taste something of the world to come.‖ In the NT we find 1. ―to taste‖ in Mt. 27:34, ―to enjoy‖ or ―to eat‖ in Acts 10:10; 20:11. In Acts 23:14 the conspirators vow not to eat, while in Col. 2:21 Christians are to ignore taboos about food. The figurative use 2. occurs in 1 Pet. 2:3: we are to desire the word as those who have already tasted the
goodness of Christ. Similar is Heb. 6:4-5, which refers to the tasting of the heavenly gift, the word of God, and the powers of the future aeon, by initial participation in the Spirit. ―To taste death‖ occurs in Mk. 9:1;
Jn. 8:52; Heb. 2:9; it expresses very vividly the harsh reality of dying. [J.BEHM, I, 675-77]
gḗ [earth], epígeios [earthly]
gḗ.
1. The Earth, Land, as a Dwelling Place of Man. a. ―Land‖ (in the geographical sense), as in Mt. 9:26;
Mk. 15:33; Acts 7:3, 4 (Palestine); named in Mt. 2:6: Judah; Acts 7:29: Midian; Acts 13:19: Canaan; Acts 7:36: Egypt etc.; b. the ―land of promise‖ (Acts 7:3; Heb. 11:9, and in an eschatological sense Mt. 5:5); c.
the ―inhabited earth‖ (Rev. 3:10; 14:6; Acts 22:22); d. the earth as the theater of history: the past (Rev.
16:18); the work of Jesus (Mk. 2:10; Mt. 10:34; Jn. 17:4-this concept merges into that of the human world);
eschatological history (Lk. 18:8; 21:23, and many passages in Revelation).
2. The Earth as Part of the World. The ancient phrase ―heaven and earth‖ for the cosmos is common in the NT (cf. Mk. 13:31; Heb. 1:10-11; 2 Pet. 3:7, and for the new heaven and earth 2 Pet. 3:7; Rev. 21:1).
Since ―sea‖ is a third component, earth denotes dry land (cf. Acts 4:24; Heb. 11:29; Rev. 8:7ff.). In another triad earth comes between heaven and what is under the earth (Rev. 5:3). There is, however, no consistent cosmology, and cosmological ideas, even in Revelation, are wholly subordinate to theological. Interesting phrases are ―from the ends of the earth‖ for ―from abroad‖ in Mt. 12:42, ―to the ends of the earth‖ for
―everywhere‖ in Acts 1:8, ―four corners of the earth‖ in Rev. 20:8, and ―from the margin of earth to the margin of heaven‖ (i.e., one end of the world to the other) in Mk. 13:27. An echo of personification may be caught in Rev. 12:16.
3. The Earth in Its Relation to God. Created by God (Acts 4:24 etc.), the earth shares the world‘s relation to him as creation. It exists by his will, has a beginning and end, and is his possession (1 Cor.
10:26). God is its Lord (Mt. 11:25), as he is of heaven, although with differentiation, for if things may be valid in both earth and heaven (cf. Mt. 16:19; 18:18-19) and earthly things copy heavenly things (Heb.
8:5), the earth is the place of what is imperfect (Mk. 9:3) and transitory (Mt. 6:19), of sin (Mk. 2:10) and death (1 Cor. 15:47). Christ, then, is not of earth (Jn. 3:31; 1 Cor. 15:47). He comes down and is lifted up again (cf. Eph. 4:9). In contrast to redeemer myths, however, the NT has the incarnation in view and makes no final metaphysical distinction between heaven and earth, since both are God‘s. The real difference is that the earth is the theater of sin. The Son of Man comes to it to forgive sins (Mk. 2:10), and it is because of the fall that believers are ―strangers and pilgrims on earth‖ (Heb. 11:13) and are ―ransomed from the earth‖ (Rev. 14:3), being exhorted not to ―set their mind on what is on the earth‖ but to mortify their
―earthly members‖ (Col. 3:2, 5).
epígeios. a. ―Existing on, belonging to, earth,‖ b. ―earthly‖ (in contrast to heavenly). In Phil. 2:10 the totality of being includes the heavenly, the earthly (not just human), and those under the earth. 2 Cor. 5 refers to the earthly body as distinct from the heavenly; cf. 1 Cor. 15:40ff., where perishable, inglorious, weak, and physical are parallels. Since the earth is the place of sin, ―earthly‖ may have a subsidiary moral sense as in ―earthly minded‖ (Phil. 3:19) and ―earthly wisdom‖ (Jms. 3:15). In Jn. 3:12 the contrast is perhaps between earthly parables and direct instruction on heavenly things (cf. 16:25). [H.SASSE, I, 677-81]
gínomai [to be born], génesis [birth], génos [kind, family], génēma [fruit], apogínomai [to die], palingenesía [rebirth, renewal]
gínomai. This word has little theological interest in the NT apart from the distinction between
gínesthai and eínai in Jn. 8:58. The common Synoptic expression (kaí) egéneto (as in Lk. 5:12, 17) seems to be consciously based on the style of the OT.
génesis.
1. ―Birth,‖ ―genesis‖ (Mt. 1:18. Lk. 1:14), with such derived senses as a. ―what has come into being‖
and b. ―life‖ (cf. perhaps Jms. 1:23).
2. bíblos genéseos for Genealogy in Mt. 1:1. This phrase goes back to the OT (Gen. 2:4; 5:1, etc.). The use in the OT varies, and genealogies are named after ancestors, so that one cannot deduce from the OT whether the reference is only to vv. 2-17 or to the whole book. The heading is undoubtedly needed to introduce vv. 2-17 (cf. v. 2 and v. 17).
3. ho trochós tēs genéseōs as the Wheel of Life in Jms. 3:6. This phrase is a technical one in Orphic teaching (cf. also Philo), but there the idea is that of the recurrence of birth and death. The saying in James is closer to the popular idea of the inversion of things which can even be said to bring burning pain.
Judaism also speaks about the world as a wheel, although this saying, which is probably the source of the statement in James, itself seems to have been taken from popular Greek sayings about the uncertainty of fortune. The Buddhist idea of the wheel of rotation, becoming and time, which is set on fire by
self-consciousness, is too speculative to explain Jms. 3:6. The author is simply adapting a popular expression to a practical end.
génos.
1. ―Posterity,‖ ―family,‖ as in Acts 17:28 (all are related to God) and, individually, in Rev. 22:16 (descendant, not representative).
2. ―People,‖ e.g., the Jewish people in Gal. 1:14; Phil. 3:5, Christians in 1 Pet. 2:9 (quoting Is. 43:20).
3. ―Kind,‖ e.g., species of animals or plants, but also tongues (1 Cor. 12:10, 28).
génēma. ―Product,‖ ―fruit (of the earth),‖ common in the LXX (to be distinguished from génnēma, from gennán, for the offspring of humans or animals). In the NT 2 Cor. 9:10 (―harvest of well-doing‖) follows Hos. 10:12, while Mk. 14:25 is parallel to the blessing of the paschal cup in contemporary Judaism.
apogínomai. This rare term occurs in the NT only in 1 Pet. 2:24, where the reference is to the goal of Christ‘s saving act, namely, that we might ―die‖ to sin and live to righteousness. The death and resurrection of Christ are thus interpreted in terms of the Jewish concept of destruction and renewal. The goal is at issue rather than an inner or sacramental experience.
palingenesía.
A. The Usage outside the NT. Deriving from pálin and génesis, and thus meaning either a. ―return to existence‖ or b. ―renewal to higher existence,‖ this word takes its distinctive impress from Stoicism with a cosmic and then an individual sense. It then spreads to educated circles with a more general reference, and occurs later in the mysteries, though not in Orphic or Pythagorean writings. Philo has it for restoration of life and the reconstitution of the world after the flood, and Josephus for the reestablishment of the people after the exile, but the only LXX instance is in Job 14:14. In Judaism existence in the new aeon is not just a repetition of this life but an existence in righteousness following the definitive crisis of the last judgment.