Nicodemus. What was new, and what was hard to hear, was, that he, a Ruler of the Jews,

a Teacher in Israel, a Pharisee, an undoubted son of Abraham, needed this same

new birth.

The words translated "born again" are gennethe anothen. Now the verb gennao is

used for either the begetting by a father, or the giving birth by a mother. This word that

is used is translated in Matt. 1: 1-20 "begat" 39 times, "born" once, and "conceived"

once. The word anothen occurs in John's Gospel as follows:--

Elsewhere it is rendered "From the top" (Matt. 27: 51; Mark 15: 38), "From the

very first", "From the beginning" (Luke 1: 3; Acts 26: 5), "From above" (Jas. 1: 17;

3: 15, 17),  and "Again" (Gal. 4: 9).  Ano from which anothen is formed, is never

translated "Again" but, "The brim", "Up", "High" and "Above".

The perplexed answer of Nicodemus, and his reference to natural motherhood, makes

it evident that he took our Lord's words in a wrong sense. In effect, what the Saviour

said to Nicodemus was that in spite of all his learning, his dignity and his racial

connection with Abraham, he needed to be "begotten from above".

What this begetting from above implied is made known in the Lord's second

statement. Here He replaces the word anothen, "from above", by "water and spirit".

There is great need for care and unbiased judgment here. In the reference to "water" and

"spirit", the Churchman, the Ritualist, and the Baptist, will find justification for baptism

as a church ordinance. Those who have the light of dispensational truth, who know full

well that there was no "church" in formation during the opening weeks of Christ's public

testimony, and who have realized that for the church of the mystery there is but "one

baptism", which cannot be that of water; these have looked upon the expression "water

and spirit" as a figure of speech, and read "spiritual water", i.e., "not water but spirit".

We feel however that Nicodemus would not so understand our Lord's words. The visit of

Nicodemus is divided from the witness of John the Baptist by only one chapter and by a

few days. John and his baptism come before us once more before this chapter is finished

(John 3: 23). John had testified: "I baptize with water . . . . . the same is He which

baptizeth with the Holy Ghost" (John 1: 26-33).

Among those who went to John's baptism were "Pharisees", who received the

warning, "Think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say

unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham . . . . . I

indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He that cometh after me is mightier

than I, Whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost

and with fire" (Matt. 3: 7, 9, 11).