What does Jesus mean in John chapter 3 verses 4 and 5?

Answer 1

A:

In Jesus' meeting with the Pharisee Nicodemus, he told him, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born anothen, he can not see the kingdom of heaven". Nicodemus understood this Greek word to mean 'again'. This is one meaning it can have, but it can also mean 'from above', a fact that John's Greek-speaking readers would have understood.

And so Nicodemus asked (John 3:4), "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?" This reveals, with the use of 'a second time', that Nicodemus only understood the surface meaning of anothen - 'again'.

Jesus invalidatedthis understanding (John 3:5): "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, 'You must be born anothen'."

Most translators now recognise that the appropriate English equivalent for this second occurrence of anothen is 'from above.' In the statement immediately preceding this Jesus says, "What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit." It is birth 'by the Spirit', not a second physical birth, that Jesus had in mind. In John's Gospel, it is typical that Jesus' opponents did not understand the deeper meaning of Jesus' words.

We may know the nuances of the original Greek, but they do not work in the English translation. Anothenmust be written either as 'again' or as 'from above'. In the first case, the modern English-speaking reader becomes an outsider, like the hapless Nicodemus, and misunderstands Christ's words. In the second case, the reaction of Nicodemus is puzzling. The King James Version, like most English Bibles, has Jesus say, 'born again'. On the other hand, the New American Bible has Jesus say, 'born from above'. Either way, some of the meaning is lost. Even when translated into Aramaic, the language that Jesus would have spoken, the same dilemma exists.