Language matters, and it never matters more than when God’s Word uses words to reveal God to us. The way God uses language in the Bible defines our understanding of who he is.
Consider how this happens in Hebrews chapter five as the book’s author describes Jesus Christ. In Hebrews 5:5, the author quotes from the Septuagint (LXX) translation of Psalm 2:7, where Yahweh says to his “Anointed” one: “You are my Son; today I have begotten you” (ESV). In both Hebrews 5 and the LXX translation of Psalm 2, the word “begotten” appears in the perfect tense. In Greek grammar, the perfect tense fundamentally denotes something already accomplished in the past, or already true in the past, the effects of which (or the reality of which) persist in the present. On any day called “today,” Yahweh says to his Anointed, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.” The begetting didn’t start happening in the moment of “today.” Rather, it is something true from the undefined past, the reality of which continues today, so that the begetting and its consequences are always present and relevant, day-by-day.
Hebrews’ employment of Psalm 2, especially in its LXX translation, is one of Scripture’s many testimonies, both subtle and explicit, concerning the eternality, and thus the divinity, of Jesus Christ. For now, I’ll assert without demonstrating that it’s the Anointed one who’s addressed in Psalm 2:7, and that this Anointed one is Jesus Christ. Properly understood, Psalm 2:7 is God the Father addressing his Son, saying, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.” The fact that “begotten” appears in the perfect tense means that whenever the Father speaks thus to the Son, he always refers to something already true in the past and relevant in the moment. On any given “today,” Jesus Christ is the one already begotten of the Father, with the weight, the effects, of that begotten-ness definitive for the moment, for every moment. The language of Psalm 2:7, quoted in Hebrews 5:5, is one of many biblical data points that bring us to this awesome conclusion: Jesus Christ is the eternal and divine Son of God. His begotten-ness is essential to his nature as Son and to the Father’s nature as Father. There was never a time, never a moment, when the Father has not been saying to the Son, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.” Thus, the decree of Psalm 2:7 (“I will tell of the decree…”) is an eternal decree, one without beginning or end (ESV).
Let no one believe the deceit that Jesus Christ is a created being with a beginning in time. He has always been, and always will be, the Anointed one to whom Yahweh says, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.”