Nicodemus is “a man of the Pharisees... a ruler of the Jews”: a member of the Sanhedrin, the seventy-one-member high council that governed Jewish religious life from Jerusalem. His night visit is respectful and searching, and he is the standing proof that the Pharisaic movement contained honest seekers; John follows his arc from this conversation to his protest on Jesus' behalf (John 7:50-52) and finally to the seventy-five pounds of burial spices (John 19:39).

Why does “ye must be born again” baffle “the teacher of Israel”? The tradition had rebirth language of its own, but for GENTILES: a convert to Judaism “has the legal status of a newborn child,” as the Talmud words the principle (Yevamot 22a). Rebirth was intelligible for an outsider entering Israel. Jesus applies it to a son of Abraham, a Pharisee, a member of the council: even Israel's teacher must be born of water and the Spirit, words that stand on Ezekiel 36:25-27's promise of clean water and a new spirit. The tradition's convert-rebirth is reception history; what Jesus claims from it is the verse's own Christian confession, new birth from above for everyone.