Definition
Anagennao (Greek: ἀναγεννάω) means “to beget again” or “to cause to be born anew.” The word appears in 1 Pet. 1:3 and 1:23 for rebirth through the resurrection of Christ and the living word of God. The morphological analysis — ana (again, anew) + gennaō (to beget, to give birth) — emphasizes the iterative and processual aspect of birth, in contrast to a one-time crisis-moment view of conversion.
Usage in the Corpus
Cees Noordzij
Noordzij emphasizes the processual character of anagennao: regeneration is not a single turning-point moment but a becoming-process that is analogous to Mary’s conception and birth. The component ana (again) points to a restoration movement — the human spirit brought back to what God originally intended. In his soteriological schema, anagennao is the opening of the path of salvation toward sonship (huiothesia): birth in the Spirit is the beginning, maturing to full sonship is the goal. [Noordzij, Moses and the Way to Sonship]
Origin
The verb gennaō (to beget, bear) is deployed with precision in the Gospel of John (John 3:3-8: born anōthen, “from above/again”). Paul uses the related palingenesia (rebirth, renewal) in Tit. 3:5 and Matt. 19:28. The Petrine choice of anagennao (1 Pet. 1:3, 23) emphasizes the active performing subject: God begets anew through the resurrection and the living word.