Observations from the Greek text in John's Gospel: 3:1-21

Every one loves to read the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus in John 3:1-21, but most don’t know about the Greek word-plays that are created in the passage.  There is NO English translation that can actually do the Greek justice in this passage.  Let’s take a look at the word-plays.

3 ἀπεκρίθη Ἰησοῦς καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ· ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω σοι, ἐὰν μή τις γεννηθῇ ἄνωθεν, οὐ δύναται ἰδεῖν τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ.  4 λέγει πρὸς αὐτὸν [ὁ] Νικόδημος· πῶς δύναται ἄνθρωπος γεννηθῆναι γέρων ὤν; μὴ δύναται εἰς τὴν κοιλίαν τῆς μητρὸς αὐτοῦ δεύτερον εἰσελθεῖν καὶ γεννηθῆναι;  5 ἀπεκρίθη Ἰησοῦς· ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω σοι, ἐὰν μή τις γεννηθῇ ἐξ ὕδατος καὶ πνεύματος, οὐ δύναται εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ.  6 τὸ γεγεννημένον ἐκ τῆς σαρκὸς σάρξ ἐστιν, καὶ τὸ γεγεννημένον ἐκ τοῦ πνεύματος πνεῦμά ἐστιν.  7 μὴ θαυμάσῃς ὅτι εἶπόν σοι· δεῖ ὑμᾶς γεννηθῆναι ἄνωθεν.  8 τὸ πνεῦμα ὅπου θέλει πνεῖ καὶ τὴν φωνὴν αὐτοῦ ἀκούεις, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ οἶδας πόθεν ἔρχεται καὶ ποῦ ὑπάγει· οὕτως ἐστὶν πᾶς ὁ γεγεννημένος ἐκ τοῦ πνεύματος.

3 Jesus replied and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born from above/again, he is not able to see the kingdom of God.”  4 Nicodemus says to him, “How is a man able to be born while being old?  He isn’t able to enter into his mother’s womb a second time and be born is he?”  5 Jesus replied, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless someone is born out of water and spirit/wind/breath, he is not able to enter into the kingdom of God. 6 What has been born out of the flesh is flesh, and what has been born out of the spirit/wind/breath is spirit/wind/breath.  7 Don’t be amazed that I said to you ‘you must be born from above/again’.  8 The spirit/wind/breath blows where it wishes and you hear its sound/voice, but you don’t know from where it is coming or where it is going.  It is this way with every one who has been born out of the spirit/wind/breath.”

Some other things from the Greek should be noted about this passage: 1. John uses the same prepositions in verse 5 (ἐκ: underlined above), 6, and 8.  In this case, John is speaking of the “source” of the birth as ἐκ can denote that.  2. the verb πνεῖ ("blows": in italic above) in verse 8 is the cognate verb of the noun πνεῦμα (spirit/wind).  3. Note how “water” completely vanishes from the text after Jesus only mentions it one time in verse 5.  After that, it is all “spirit” all the time!

Finally, all of you who may think that (ἄνωθεν) should always be translated as “again”, check out what John does in 3:31a:

Ὁ ἄνωθεν ἐρχόμενος ἐπάνω πάντων ἐστίν· 

The one who comes from above is over all.

In the next post, we’ll take a stab at interpreting this beauty!

Stay tuned!