You must be born again: Nicodemus, the lifted-up Son of Man and the bridegroom's friend

The Gospel of John does not name its author. Christian tradition, from Irenaeus in the late second century onward, ascribes it to the apostle John, the son of Zebedee, who is usually identified with 'the disciple whom Jesus loved'. The Gospel itself says that this disciple's testimony stands behind the book (John 21:24). Some scholars hold that the apostle wrote it himself. Others think it was shaped by a circle of his followers, and Richard Bauckham argues that the source is an eyewitness who was not one of the Twelve. The traditional date is the late first century, perhaps the 80s or 90s. A small papyrus fragment of John 18 (P52) shows that the Gospel was being copied in Egypt by the early second century. The Gospel states its purpose at the end: that readers may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and have life in his name (20:31).

The scene is Jerusalem, during the first Passover of Jesus' public ministry in John's account. Jesus has driven the traders from the temple and done signs, and many believed in him because of them, though John adds that Jesus did not entrust himself to them (2:23-25). Nicodemus is a Pharisee, a member of the lay movement that took the Torah and its careful interpretation with great seriousness, and a 'leader of the Jews', most likely a member of the Sanhedrin, the ruling council. He appears twice more: when he asks his colleagues to give Jesus a hearing (7:50-52) and when he helps bury Jesus (19:39-42).

The second half of the chapter moves to the Judean countryside, where John the Baptist is baptizing at Aenon near Salim, a site that is disputed. Verse 24 assumes that readers know the Baptist was later imprisoned, a story told in the other Gospels (Mark 6:17-18).

John 3 is narrative that turns into discourse. Like the other Gospels it is an ancient biography with a purpose, but John arranges his story around 'signs' and the conversations that explain them. A recurring pattern is the misunderstanding: Jesus says something with two levels of meaning, his hearer takes it at ground level, and Jesus then explains. In this chapter the double meanings are built into the Greek. The word anothen means both 'again' and 'from above', and pneuma means both 'wind' and 'Spirit'. A translation must choose one, and the reader should keep the other in mind.

The earliest manuscripts mark no quotation marks, so translators must decide where Jesus' words end and the evangelist's comment begins (verse 15 or verse 21), and where the Baptist's words end (verse 30 or verse 36). The BSB gives verses 16-21 to Jesus and 27-36 to the Baptist. Many commentators read 16-21 and 31-36 as the evangelist's reflection. The teaching is the same either way, and this class rests no point on the choice.

Two principles apply.

• First, ask what a teacher of Israel could have understood. Jesus expects Nicodemus to know these things (verse 10), so the background lies in the Old Testament, especially Ezekiel 36-37, and not in later church vocabulary.
• Second, follow John's own usage, in which 'world', 'light', 'believe' and 'life' carry meanings set up in the opening chapter.

Verses 1–2

Nicodemus comes 'at night'. The detail may be practical, since a leader might wish to avoid notice, and it carries weight in a Gospel where night is the setting of unbelief (9:4; 13:30). His opening words speak for a group: 'we know that You are a teacher who has come from God', because of the signs. It is a respectful and incomplete confession.

Verse 3

Jesus does not answer the compliment. He announces what is required: no one 'can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again'. The Greek anothen can mean 'again' or 'from above', and elsewhere in John it means 'from above' (3:31; 19:11). Nicodemus hears 'a second time'. Jesus means a birth that has its source in God, which includes a new beginning.

Verses 4–5

The question about the womb shows that Nicodemus has understood the words and missed the meaning. Jesus says one must be 'born of water and the Spirit'. A single preposition governs both nouns in Greek, which joins them closely. Ezekiel 36:25-27 is the most natural background: God promises to sprinkle clean water on his people, give a new heart and put his own Spirit within them. A teacher of Israel should have known that passage, and the rebuke in verse 10 suggests exactly this. Other readings appear in the tradition note.

Verses 6–8

'Flesh is born of flesh, but spirit is born of the Spirit.' Flesh here means human nature as it comes by ordinary descent, which can produce only more of itself (compare 1:13). The word pneuma then means wind in the first clause and Spirit in the last. The Spirit's work is real in its effects and not under human control, as Ecclesiastes 11:5 says of the unseen wind and the origin of life.

Verses 9–12

'How can this be?' Jesus replies, 'You are Israel's teacher', literally 'the teacher', a recognised authority, 'and you do not understand these things?' The plural 'we speak of what we know' most likely includes those who bear witness with Jesus. 'Earthly things' are things that happen on earth, such as the new birth. 'Heavenly things' are the truths about Christ's origin and saving death, which follow.

Verses 13–15

Proverbs 30:4 asks who has gone up to heaven and come down. John's answer is the Son of Man, a title from Daniel 7:13 for the one who receives universal dominion. Jesus then turns to Numbers 21:4-9. When snakes bit the grumbling Israelites in the wilderness, God told Moses to lift a bronze snake on a pole, and everyone who looked at it lived. 'So the Son of Man must be lifted up.' The word 'must' marks divine necessity. The verb 'lifted up' (hypsoo) can mean raised on a pole and exalted, and John uses it of Jesus' death (8:28; 12:32-34).

Verse 16

'For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son.' 'World' (kosmos) in John is humanity in its fallen state, not yet God's own but loved by him. The gift of an 'only son' recalls Abraham and Isaac (Genesis 22:2), and Paul echoes it in Romans 8:32. The two outcomes are 'perish' and 'eternal life', and the means is belief.

Verses 17–21

The Son was sent to save, not to condemn. Judgment is already under way, because response to 'the name of God's one and only Son' places a person on one side or the other. Verse 19 states the verdict in terms of light and darkness, as the opening of the Gospel does (1:4-5, 9-11). People avoid the Light because it exposes deeds. Whoever 'practices the truth' comes into the Light, and the result is not credit for the person but a plain showing that the deeds were 'accomplished in God'.

Verses 22–26

Jesus and his disciples baptize in Judea (4:2 clarifies that the disciples did the baptizing). A dispute over ceremonial washing leads John's disciples to complain that everyone is going to Jesus.

Verses 27–30

John answers that a person can receive only what heaven gives. He repeats that he is not the Christ and uses a wedding picture. In the Old Testament, God is the husband of his people (Isaiah 62:5; Hosea 2:19-20). The friend of the bridegroom stood by, helped arrange the wedding and rejoiced to hear the groom's voice. 'He must increase; I must decrease.'

Verses 31–36

The One from above is above all, and he testifies to what he has seen and heard. God gives him the Spirit 'without limit'. The closing contrast is between believing the Son, which brings life, and rejecting him, which leaves 'the wrath of God' where it already rests.

The chapter is one of the Bible's clearest statements that entry into God's kingdom is an act of God before it is a human decision. The Old Testament had described both the problem and the remedy. Deuteronomy 30:6 promises that God will circumcise his people's hearts, Psalm 51:10 prays for a clean heart and a new spirit, and Jeremiah 31:31-34 and Ezekiel 36:25-27 promise a new covenant with a new heart and God's Spirit within. Ezekiel's vision of the dry bones adds that the breath of God makes the dead live (Ezekiel 37:1-14). Jesus tells Nicodemus that this promise is now being fulfilled. The rest of the New Testament says the same: believers are 'born of God' (John 1:12-13), renewed by the Spirit (Titus 3:5), and given new birth through the word (1 Peter 1:3, 23; James 1:18).

The chapter also gives the Bible's best-known statement of God's love and sets it inside a larger account. The Father sends the Son, the Son is lifted up, and the Spirit gives new birth, so all three persons act in the one work of salvation. God's love reaches the world, yet belief is required, and unbelief leaves a person under a verdict already in place. John's judgment is both present and final: the Light has come and people are sorted by their response, as the last day will confirm (5:28-29).

The order of grace and faith is contested. Reformed writers speak of regeneration as God's act that precedes and enables faith. Arminian and Wesleyan writers speak of grace that goes before and enables a free response. All begin from this chapter.

The chapter presents Jesus as the Son of Man who has come down from heaven, the title from Daniel 7:13-14 for the figure who receives everlasting dominion. He alone can reveal heavenly things, because he has been there (compare Proverbs 30:4). He is also the 'one and only Son', whom the Father loves and in whose hands all things have been placed (3:35).

The Old Testament connection is made by Jesus himself, and it is a type. In verse 14 he draws on Numbers 21:8-9: as the bronze snake on the pole gave life to those who looked at it in faith, so the Son of Man lifted up gives eternal life to everyone who believes. John later explains that this lifting up means his death on the cross (12:32-33). The parallel is exact at one point: rescue comes by looking in trust at what God has appointed. The snake itself was never meant to be worshipped, and Hezekiah destroyed it when it was (2 Kings 18:4).

Two further connections run through the chapter. The new birth 'of water and the Spirit' answers Ezekiel 36:25-27, and Jesus is the one on whom the Spirit rests 'without limit', in line with Isaiah 11:2 and 42:1. And the Baptist's bridegroom image casts Jesus in the role the Old Testament gives to the LORD, the husband of his people (Isaiah 62:5; Hosea 2:19-20). Jesus uses the same image of himself in Mark 2:19-20, and the New Testament later calls the church his bride (Ephesians 5:25-32; Revelation 19:7).