THE ONLY BEGOTTEN, page 90 chapter 9 of Mysteries of Creation by Ogden Kraut.

THE ONLY BEGOTTEN, page 90 chapter 9 of Mysteries of Creation by Ogden Kraut. 

In a literal sense begotten refers to procreation and being the father or sire. However, the word has a much broader definition which should be kept in mind in reading the next two chapters:

to bring into being; produce. (Webster’s New World Dictionary)

Various forms of “beget” are frequent in the OT both in the literal sense and the metaphorical. * * * When understood prophetically of Christ, the word passes far beyond the adoptionist sense. In the NT, the literal sense is still common but the metaphorical use is greatly extended. For instance, in 1 Corinthians 4:15 an evangelist may be said to have “begotten” his converts to new spiritual life.

Christ, by contrast, is the “son” of God, to John, but this verb is not used in the NT to describe God’s relationship to Him. “Only Begotten” is a mistranslation in older VSS of “only”, “unique”, probably corresponding to Hebrew of which “beloved” is another NT tr. (Zondervan Pic. Enc. of the Bible 1:510)