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BEGETTING
BEGETTING
V. 8) ; Eliaha was recognized as a prophet by tlie woman of Sluinem, because no fly crept over his place at the table {Berakh. lOi) ; on the yezcr ha-rd as a fly see Berakh. 61rt, Targ. Jer. on Ec 10'). The supposition that the name corresponds to Aramaic i<33iSj;3= 'enemy' is not very likely, nor tlie other that it is the Baal of the heavenly mansion who became tlie Baal of the nether world (JAS, 1878, pp. 220-221). Later Jews identified 'BaaX-zebub with 'QaaX-berith, and told that some would cari-y an image of him (in the shape of a fly) in their pockets, producing it and kissing it from time to time {S/iab. 836. 636). Procopius states {ad 2 K l)j tXtiv fffTi fw.Be'iii ej wu Euffi^ios iv dpxS '■^s Ei)a77e\i».-^5 npoTropcKTKfif^s iK tuv <Pi\uvos TapaTiderai., lis dalfiwv fjv, oi'Tu Xcydficvof /jmWop Si yvi/ri TraXaid Tis, -^i- i6covoir]aai'. Zahii (on Mt 12''') lays stress on the fact that the article is missing before dpxoyTi tGiv Saifidvuv {'a prince of the devils, not the prince'); but the definite article is found in Mark and Luke, and in Mt 9** (if this verse be not a later addition) where several Latin docu- ments have the name.
How scanty is our knowledge of NT times, when such a name, which appears tiuite popular in the NT, defies as yet all explanation, and is not found anywhere else ! Origen on John xix. (p. 315, ed. Preuschen) remarks : iravTm yap wepl &ai.ij.6iruv n lunae-fiKeiirav Kai toO ipxovTOi aiirCiv, 4> Svofna BceX- fe/SoiJX' Tovro 3^ ou ttoi'I/ n iv tois (pepofji^voi! Ketrvn
Literature.— In addition to works cited above, see A. Loisy, ' Beelzeboul ' (liec. d'/tist. et de lit. ret. 1904, v. 434-466).
Eb. Nestle. BEGETTING.-
The idea of begetting, as applied in tlic natural or in a meta- phorical or spiritual sense, is expressed in the Gospels bv the common words yiwxa,, 'to beget' (which occurs in the LX.X as the equivalent of the Heb. t^;, meaning either * to beget ' or •to bear,' and is similarly used in the N'T); ysyvT-rc, properly ' begotten,' but which, like the verb, is .-ilso found in the sense of ' born ' ; fa>eyi,r.s, ' only -begotten.' Tlie coninion word 5-t.>a<i/. with its derivatives, is, as might be expected, used to express natural begetting and natural birth. So fcs^cys.r..-, used in the Fourth Gospel only of the relation of Christ to God the Father, occurs in Lk 71- of the son of the widow of Nain, meaning simply • only son ' (cf. b-- Jairus' daughter, and 938 the demoniac boy); and j-l.^tk in the sense of 'born' in Mt 11", Lk ?28 ('among those that are born of women"). In Matthew and Luke again, t« -/i.vr«<> and ri yi„u/^!,cy are used to describe tlie miraculous conception of our Lord in the womb of the ^'irgin Mary ; Mt I'-O has ' that which is conceived in her (AVm ' be- gotten ') is of the Holy Ghost,' and Lk 1^5 ' that which shall be born of thee (RVm ' is begotten ') shall be called the Son of God.' In both cases obviously the exj • which is begotten ' or ' which ordinary sense in which the verb is known
The Messianic and the spiritual uses of the words for begetting are those which alone call for remark in connexion with the Gospels and the NT generally. In the Gospels, and tliere particularly in the Gospel of John, we find them applied to Christ and His relation to God the Father, and, in connexion A\-itli that reference, to the case of believers who, receiving Christ by faith, are, in virtue of the new principle of life thus imparted to them, born again, Ijeconie children of God. This latter thought is suggested in the Gospels, and dwelt upon at len^h in the Epistles.
We may regard as the locus classicus of the theological or sjjiritual application of the idea of begetting, as we find it in the Gospels, the well- known passage in the Prologue to the Fourth Gospel : ' No man hath seen God at any time ; the only-begotten Son (o fiovoyevijs vl6s),' wlio i.s in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him ' (Jn 1'"). Here the use of the term fiovoyev-qt in this connexion at once raises the question as to the precise .sense in which it is applied to Clirist, whether it refers to His being by Divine nature and essence .Sou of God, or merely to His manifestation in time as
" WH read miyiyl.ii; Oli!, following ICBCL.
Messiah, as one specially chosen to reveal to man- kind the will of the invisible God. A little study of tlie history of the term ' only- begotten ' shows that it is by no means peculiar to the Gospels, but is rather a familiar Messianic term, which depends, for a clear understanding of the thoughts denoted and connoted by it, upon what, we may gather from other sources, was the national belief as to God's self-revelation in the history of grace. We are reminded, for instance, that Israel (Ex 4-, Hos 1""), the kings of Israel (1 Ch 28"), and the Messiah (Ps 2^), of whom the latter were types, were suc- cessively called sons of God, or God's firstborn. Again, St. Paul (in Ac 13^^) and the Epistle to the Hebrews (1' 5°) quote Ps 2' as a Messianic pro- phecy which had been fulfilled in the mission of Jesus : ' Thou art my Son ; this day have I be- gotten thee ' (arifj.epov ytyiw-qni. ce).