Robertson Word Pictures - John 3:3 - 3:3

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Robertson Word Pictures - John 3:3 - 3:3


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Except a man be born anew (ean mē tis gennēthēi anōthen). Another condition of the third class, undetermined but with prospect of determination. First aorist passive subjunctive of gennaō. Anōthen. Originally “from above” (Mar 15:38), then “from heaven” (Joh 3:31), then “from the first” (Luk 1:3), and then “again” (palin anōthen, Gal 4:9). Which is the meaning here? The puzzle of Nicodemus shows (deuteron, Joh 3:4) that he took it as “again,” a second birth from the womb. The Vulgate translates it by renatus fuerit denuo. But the misapprehension of Nicodemus does not prove the meaning of Jesus. In the other passages in John (Joh 3:31; Joh 19:11, Joh 19:23) the meaning is “from above” (desuper) and usually so in the Synoptics. It is a second birth, to be sure, regeneration, but a birth from above by the Spirit.

He cannot see the kingdom of God (ou dunatai idein tēn basileian tou theou). To participate in it as in Luk 9:27. For this use of idein (second aorist active infinitive of horaō) see Joh 8:51; Rev 18:7.