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The author of John's Gospel often used ambiguity in the Greek language to show the opponents of Jesus as lacking in understanding. Jesus would state something, which invariably was misunderstood, after which he must clarify his remark.
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, 'How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?' Nicodemus only understood the surface meaning of anothen - 'again'. Jesus invalidated this when he then said, "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'."
We may know the nuances of the original Greek, but they do not work in the English translation. Anothen must be written either as 'again' or as 'from above'. 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.
Most translators now recognise that the appropriate English equivalent for the second anothen is "from above", since the preceding statement says, "What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit". Consequently, Jesus would no doubt have meant "from above" throughout the conversation.
So, Jesus was not really saying that we must be born again. He was talking about our spiritual needs.
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