Hebrews 11:17
Hebrews 11:1717By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac on the altar. He who had received the promises was ready to offer his one and only son,
The Watchtower reads as a narrative about Abraham's faith in offering Isaac and takes "only-begotten son" (monogenes) in its lexically literal sense — the one Abraham begot uniquely from Sarah. The JW use of monogenes is calibrated to , where "only-begotten Son" is read as evidence that Jesus was produced or brought forth by Jehovah at a point in time.
is the decisive counter-text for the JW reading of monogenes. Isaac was not Abraham's "only begotten" in the literal birth-sense — Abraham had Ishmael, fourteen years earlier, through Hagar. Yet Hebrews calls Isaac the monogenes. The word does not mean "only one begotten" in the sense of singular procreation; it means "unique, one of a kind" — the son of promise, not of slave- wife arrangement. This is the same word applied to Jesus at and (monogenes theos — "unique God"). The doorstep move: "Read in your own NWT. Did Abraham have other sons? How can Isaac be the 'only-begotten' unless the word means 'unique'?" The monogenes argument stands or falls on a single verse in Hebrews — and it stands.