John 3 Bible study: Born anew

"Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews" (3:1). "He came to Jesus by night" (3:2), and he began with what he knew: "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him" (3:2) (tap teacher). Jesus answered, "Most certainly I tell you, unless one is born anew, he can’t see God’s Kingdom" (3:3) (tap born, anew). Nicodemus asked, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?" (3:4). Jesus answered, "unless one is born of water and Spirit, he can’t enter into God’s Kingdom" (3:5), and went on, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (3:6) (tap Spirit). Here is what almost everyone misses: 3:7 has two yous, and in the Greek they differ. "Don’t marvel that I said to you, ‘You must all be born anew.’" (3:7). The first you, in "I said to you", is singular; the second, in "You must all be born anew", is plural, as the WEB's all shows (tap must). These notes build nothing on it. Then: "The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but don’t know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit" (3:8).

Numbers 21:9→leads toJohn 3:14-15

Speaking with Nicodemus (John 3:1-2, 3:10), Jesus pointed to this chapter himself: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:14-15). In the wilderness, "Moses made a serpent of bronze, and set it on the pole. If a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked at the serpent of bronze, he lived" (21:9). Jesus sets the serpent lifted up beside the Son of Man lifted up, and says what it is for: that whoever believes in him should "have eternal life".

γεννάωgennaosay ghen-NAH-o

Strong's: "to procreate (properly, of the father, but by extension of the mother)". Thayer: "to be born". In 3:3-8 the verb comes eight times. Jesus says it first, "unless one is born anew" (3:3). Nicodemus uses it twice: "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?" (3:4). Jesus answers with it again and again: "born of water and Spirit" (3:5), "That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (3:6), "You must all be born anew" (3:7), and "So is everyone who is born of the Spirit" (3:8). John's Greek has it 18 times (counted in RP2018), and the first is near the start of the book: "who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (1:13).