John 3:4 BSB — MannaFest

John 3:4

“How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time to be born?”

BSB

Parallel translations (2) ▾

ASV

Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?

KJV

Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?

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Commentary

4 voices

Cyril of Alexandria

Commentary on the Gospel of John, Book 2 (444)

Faith consisteth not, O Nicodemus, in what thou thinkest. Speech sufficeth not unto thee for righteousness, neither wilt thou achieve piety by mere words. For not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven, but he that doeth the will of My Father Which is in Heaven. But the will of the Father is, that man be made partaker of the Holy Ghost, that the citizen of earth reborn unto an unaccustomed and new life, be called a citizen of Heaven.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

John Gill

1697–1771

Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748)

Nicodemus saith unto him,.... Understanding him of a natural birth, to be repeated: how can a man be born when he is old? as it seems by this, he himself now was: can he enter the second time into his mothers womb, and be born? the Ethiopic version adds, "again"; and the Arabic version, "and then be born"; this he urges, as absurd, impracticable, and impossible; and which shows him to have been as yet a natural man, who could not receive nor discern spiritual things.

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible (1832)

How can a man be born when he is old? - It is probable that Nicodemus was pretty far advanced in age at this time; and from his answer we may plainly perceive that, like the rest of the Jews, and like multitudes of Christians, he rested in the letter, without paying proper attention to the spirit: the shadow, without the thing signified, had hitherto satisfied him. Our Lord knew him to be in this state, and this was the cause of his pointed address to him.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

How, &c.--The figure of the new birth, if it had been meant only of Gentile proselytes to the Jewish religion, would have been intelligible enough to Nicodemus, being quite in keeping with the language of that day; but that Jews themselves should need a new birth was to him incomprehensible.

Voices on this verse

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Hebraic traditional view

Nicodemus, and why “born again” baffled a teacher of Israel

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.

Sources: Yevamot 22a (Babylonian Talmud: the convert as a newborn)

Original language & word study

23 tagged words

Original	Transliteration	Meaning	Word study
Λέγει	Legei	Says	G3004 →
πρὸς	pros	to	G4314 →
αὐτὸν	auton	Him	G846 →
ὁ	ho	<the>	G3588 →
Νικόδημος·	Nikodēmos	Nicodemus;	G3530 →
πῶς	pōs	How	G4459 →
δύναται	dunatai	is able	G1410 →
ἄνθρωπος	anthrōpos	a man	G444 →
γεννηθῆναι	gennēthēnai	to be born	G1080 →
γέρων	gerōn	old	G1088 →
ὤν;	ōn	being?	G1510 →
μὴ	mē	Not	G3361 →
δύναται	dunatai	is he able	G1410 →
εἰς	eis	into	G1519 →
τὴν	tēn	the	G3588 →
κοιλίαν	koilian	womb	G2836 →
τῆς	tēs	of the	G3588 →
μητρὸς	mētros	mother	G3384 →
αὐτοῦ	autou	of him	G846 →
δεύτερον	deuteron	a second time	G1208 →
εἰσελθεῖν	eiselthein	to enter	G1525 →
καὶ	kai	and	G2532 →
γεννηθῆναι;¶	gennēthēnai	to be born?	G1080 →

Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.

The walk

The walk8

Where the connections lead

Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.

Through
John 3:3
Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
leads to
- 2 Corinthians 5:17
  Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come!
- John 3:5–6
  Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.
- 1 Peter 1:23–25
  For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.
- 1 John 3:9
  Anyone born of God refuses to practice sin, because God’s seed abides in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.
Through
1 Corinthians 1:18
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
leads to
- 1 Corinthians 2:14
  The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
- Romans 1:16
  I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, then to the Greek.
Through
1 Corinthians 2:14
The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
leads to
- 1 Corinthians 1:18
  For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
- Romans 8:5–8
  Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh; but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

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