Samuel Puopolo

Of late, I’ve been puzzling over a specific passage from the New Testament. The passage is rather a familiar one to Christians, since it is the origin of the idea that one must be “born again,” as one sees on bumper stickers, for example.

Nicodemus is a prominent Pharisee, and he goes to Jesus by night and says to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come as a teacher from God, for no one could do these miracles which You do, if God were not with him.”

Jesus’ response to him is this: “Amen, amen, I tell you, unless a man be born ἄνωθεν, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Already, my interest is piqued, because I don’t quite understand why Jesus responds to Nicodemus’ statement in that way. Perhaps the gospel doesn’t think it’s necessary to go through everything that was said, and so the pleasantries exchanged between the two are elided. Maybe, Jesus’ responds in this way to clarify what sort of a person can come as a teacher from God?

The word ἄνωθεν is also of interest, since it literally means “from above, downward,” but could also mean by this time “again.”

Nicodemos’ response I understand very well – he asks, “How can a man be born again (ἄνωθεν) when he is old? He cannot enter into the womb of his mother a second time and be born.” This seems to me a most sensible question, although lacking in understanding.

Jesus answers this question directly, “Amen, amen, I tell you, if someone is not born from water and spirit (πνεύματος), he cannot enter into the kingdom of God”

So, assuming that seeing the kingdom of God and entering the kingdom of God are meant to be equivalent here, this birth ἄνωθεν must be a birth of water and πνεῦμα (which can mean spirit or wind, as we shall see).

Jesus’ next saying seems to explain what πνεῦμα means: “The thing born from flesh is flesh, and the thing born from πνεῦμα is πνεῦμα. Do not wonder if I tell you ‘it is necessary for you to be born ἄνωθεν.’ The wind (πνεῦμα) blows where it will, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes and whither it goes. So is everyone who is born from πνεῦμα.”

Now, I have more questions. What must I do to be born from πνεῦμα? Many people translate πνεῦμα as “spirit” – do some people not have spirit? It must, then, be different from soul, which I think everyone has. The reference to water seems to suggest baptism. But, why does the baptism of flesh create spirit, if spirit must be born from spirit? If ἄνωθεν means “from heaven/from above,” does that mean that one must have descended to this world to see the kingdom of God, i.e. that only Jesus can see the kingdom of God?

Nicodemos totally drops the ball by asking a very banal question: “How can these things be?”

Jesus responds “You are a teacher of the Israelites and you do not know these things? Amen, amen, I tell you, the things which we know we have spoken, and the things which we have seen we have testified, and you do not receive our testimony. If you do not trust the earthly things, how will you trust the heavenly things if I tell you? Nobody has gone up to heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Son of Man.”