[kosta50]

Maybe my beef is with the use of the word "beget". I don't think I have any problem with "proceed from" since that doesn't imply to me the pre-existence of one over another. Are those terms the same?

Most definitely they are not the same. The Greek word for "begetting" (as Kolo demonstrated in one of his posts, using Greek alphabet) is rooted in the word to "generate." Your words are generated, energized, projected reflections of your mind. Because it is a one-way process, it is akin to sonship. The Word does not generate the Wisdom, but rather the Wisdom generates the Word. In the case of God, that generation, like the well and water, is eternal and transcendental. It is true yesterday, today and forever before all times and beyond. So, one can not ascribe a "moment" to the Wisdom generating the Word. It can never be an accomplished or initiated

You are still bound by physical and temporal chains and think of God in human terms. We can only think of God in human terms when we think of Jesus Christ.

[kosta50]

I wrote It can never be an accomplished or initiated ...when it should have read: It can never be an accomplished or initiated act bound by a time.

[Forest Keeper]

[On the difference between "beget" and "proceed from"] Most definitely they are not the same. The Greek word for "begetting" (as Kolo demonstrated in one of his posts, using Greek alphabet) is rooted in the word to "generate."

OK, so is the difference that in this context "beget" means "to generate" (outside of time), and "proceed from" means "He who already exists is sent"? (I had never heard of the filioque before this thread :)