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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - John 1:13 - 1:13
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Which were born (hoi egennēthēsan). First aorist passive indicative of gennaō, to beget, “who were begotten.” By spiritual generation (of God, ek theou), not by physical (ex haimatōn, plural as common in classics and O.T., though why it is not clear unless blood of both father and mother; ek thelēmatos sarkos, from sexual desire; ek thelēmatos andros, from the will of the male). But b of the old Latin reads qui natus est and makes it refer to Christ and so expressly teach the Virgin Birth of Jesus. Likewise Irenaeus reads qui natus est as does Tertullian who argues that qui nati sunt (hoi egennēthēsan) is an invention of the Valentinian Gnostics. Blass (Philology of the Gospels, p. 234) opposes this reading, but all the old Greek uncials read hoi egennēthēsan and it must be accepted. The Virgin Birth is doubtless implied in Joh 1:14, but it is not stated in Joh 1:13.