Many say it is an eternal personal act of the Father (by necessity of nature and not by choice of will).
I think Berkhoff says only the personal subsistence is generated (and the essence is communicated), and then Calvin started the Autotheon controversy, while Nicae Church Fathers (and I think Athanasian Creed) say the whole indivisible substance (essence) is also communicated.
I was studying this too and it just became too much for me.
I find the Critical Text (as opposed to the TR) very interesting in John 1:18 with the "Monogenes Theos" meaning "Only Begotten God" because that sounds like the essence is also generated to me. And it is Creedal.
And then I found a different version and way of wording it
on the PB's Bayou Huguenot Blog by A.A. Hodge ==>
"Eternal Generation: eternal personal act of the Father.
He generates the person of the Son by communicating to him the whole indivisible substance of the Godhead (182).
It is a communication within the Godhead."
While this book can never approach the grandeur of his elder, neither will it have the literary quality of Shedd, it probably surpasses them both in its usefulness to the teacher. Unlike Shedd, Hod…
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