John 3:10Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

The utterances of the prophets also signify this image of birth. Thus it is said, "My posterity shall serve Him, and it shall be proclaimed to the Lord forever. They shall come and declare His righteousness to a people who will be born, that the Lord has done this" (Ps 21:31-32). Again, "Your youth is renewed like the eagle's" (Ps 102:5). Also, "Shine, O Jerusalem" (Is 60:1), "Behold, your King comes" (Zech 9:9), and "Blessed is he whose iniquities are forgiven" (Ps 31:1).

Isaac too was an image of this birth. Tell me, Nicodemus, how was Isaac born? According to the law of nature? No. The image of his birth stood between both births, fleshly and spiritual. It was fleshly because he was born from conjugal union, and spiritual because he was not born of blood.

I will show that these images foretold not only this birth, but also the birth from the Virgin. Since it would not have been easy to believe that a Virgin gives birth, barren women first gave birth. Not only barren women, but elderly women also gave birth.

Of course, the origin of the woman from the rib is much more wondrous than birth from a barren woman. Yet since that happened in the beginning, long ago, another, new and recent manner of birth followed, namely from barren women. This prepared the way for faith in the birth from the Virgin.

Recalling this to Nicodemus, Christ says, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and do not know this?"

O brothers, shall we think that the Lord wished to mock this teacher of the Jews? The Lord knew what He was doing. He wanted him to be born of the Spirit. No one is born of the Spirit unless he first acquires humility. Humility itself makes it possible for us to be born of the Spirit, for "the Lord is near to the brokenhearted" (Ps 33:19).

That man was swollen with learning and seemed important to himself because he was a teacher of the Jews. Jesus restrained his pride, so that he might be born of the Spirit. He mocked him as an ignorant man, not because the Lord wished to show His own superiority.

What comparison can there be between God and man, Truth and falsehood? Should one say that Christ is greater than Nicodemus? Can this be said, or even thought? If someone said that Christ is greater than an angel, one ought to laugh, for He through whom every creature was made is incomparably greater than every creature.

But He was casting arrogance out of the man: "Are you a teacher of Israel, and do not know this?" It is as though He were saying: See, you know nothing, proud ruler. Be born of the Spirit, for if you are born of the Spirit, you will walk in the ways of God, following the humility of Christ.

For in this He is exalted above the angels: being in the form of God, He did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped. But He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man. He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death. And lest some kind of death seem honorable to you, the Apostle adds, "even death on a cross" (Phil 2:6-8).

He hung on the Cross, and they mocked Him. He could have come down from the Cross, but He postponed this in order to rise from the tomb. The Lord endured proud servants. The Physician endured proud patients.

If He acted in this way, what should those do who must be born of the Spirit? If the true heavenly Teacher acted in this way, the Teacher not only of men, but also of angels?

For if angels are learned, they are learned from the Word of God. If they are learned from the Word of God, consider how they became learned, and you will find: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (Jn 1:1).

He bends the stubborn and unyielding neck of man, so that it may become meek for bearing the yoke of Christ, of which it is said, "My yoke is good, and My burden is light" (Mt 11:30).

Zechariah also, when it was announced to him that he would have a son, doubted. Therefore his tongue, with which he taught others, was bound. In the same way, all these images lay before the eyes of Nicodemus, and he did not believe. For this reason the Lord subjected him to censure, but mildly.

For the Lord saw that he was indeed sick, yet near to healing. Since he did not know what had previously been written about Him in the Law, He showed him the baptism of the perfect cleansing of flesh and soul.

Did you not understand, Nicodemus, that Jacob, apart from womb and belly, was born into the firstborn's right (Gen 27:36)? Was Naaman not reborn without a womb when Elisha spoke with him, and he went away, and after washing and cleansing returned unchanged in person, while his flesh became like the flesh of a child (4 Kgs 5:14)?

Likewise, was not Mary, the sister of Moses, a clear sign of the baptism given to the Gentiles? For hyssop cleansed her spotted sores (Num 12:14).

In these Scriptures there were also prophecies. David, for example, said, "They shall proclaim His righteousness to a people yet to be born, whom the Lord has made" (Ps 21:32). Again, "Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered" (Ps 31:1). Also, "Your youth shall be renewed like the eagle's" (Ps 102:5). Because of their multitude, we shall now pass over the prophecies of others in silence.

If you do not believe Me when I speak of what can be observed and felt, of divine actions revealed here on earth in men and accessible to their self-observation, how will you believe when I speak to you of realities and relations that exist only in heaven? Knowledge of these is just as necessary as birth from above, in order to be worthy of the Kingdom of God.

No man has ascended, or ever can ascend, into heaven, so that afterward he might tell men the mysteries of heaven. Therefore no man can tell them of this, except the Son of Man who came down from heaven and is in heaven, whom you nevertheless do not believe.

Thus Jesus Christ here already communicated to Nicodemus some conception of His own person. Further, the Lord reveals His relation to the messianic kingdom. At the same time He bears still loftier witness concerning Himself, revealing in Himself the Only-begotten Son of God.

The whole Old Testament, all the books of the Law and the prophets, contain descriptions of the visible actions of the Spirit of God and prophecies of His special manifestation at the coming of the Messiah. The Pharisees take pride in their knowledge of Scripture. They have appropriated for themselves the exclusive right to understand and interpret the mysteries of the Kingdom of God proclaimed by the prophets.

They have taken the keys of understanding these mysteries, and sadly they themselves have not understood them. They have shut themselves out of this Kingdom, and they hinder others from entering it.

No man can reveal these mysteries, because "no one has ever ascended into heaven except the Son of Man who came down from heaven, who is in heaven." He is the Messiah, who has now come to earth to preach the truth.

But why does the Savior suppose that spiritual birth should be known to Nicodemus? "What does this birth have in common with Jewish matters? What does it not have in common? The origin of the first man, the creation of the woman from the rib, barrenness, and the miracles accomplished through waters all foretold in figures the birth and purification that were to come. These include the spring from which Elisha drew up the iron, the Red Sea through which the Jews passed, the pool stirred by an angel, and the Jordan in which Naaman the Syrian was cleansed. The utterances of the prophets also signify this image of birth (Ps 21:31-32; Ps 31:1; Ps 102:5; Is 60:1; Zech 9:9). Isaac too was an image of this birth. His birth stood between the one birth and the other, fleshly and spiritual. His birth was fleshly because Isaac was born from conjugal union, and spiritual because he was not born of blood. Recalling this to Nicodemus, Christ says: Are you a teacher of Israel, and do not know this?" Chrysostom.

Rebirth, this transformation or recreation of man's spiritual nature for his justification before God and salvation, was also directly revealed in the Old Testament. The prophets spoke of it, and did so with direct indication of water and the Spirit (Ezek 36:25-26, 29; cf. Is 44:3 and others).

If the teachers of Israel themselves did not know this, what can be said of the people? This is why the Savior's reproach also expresses sorrow: "Are you a teacher of Israel, and do not know this?"

One must think that the Savior reproaches Nicodemus because he does not know of this spiritual birth and does not believe in its possibility. He is not reproaching him because he does not understand its essence. The Savior Himself teaches the incomprehensibility of this birth (v. 8), and afterward He does not explain it, but only confirms the truth of such birth.

If the Savior's reproach to Nicodemus is referred to this, it has this meaning: Are you a teacher of Israel, and do not know this? Do you not know that this was revealed by God through the ancient prophets, who foretold the time of grace? Do you still not know that such lofty things as spiritual rebirth cannot be understood and explained by the mind, but must only be believed?

Do you not know that not everything can be explained, not only in spiritual and supersensible matters, but even in visible things subject to the senses? If you do not know and do not understand, then you must believe. It has been revealed to you that such a birth exists and will be. Believe, and do not pry into how it will be.

How, then, could a teacher of Israel prove not to know this? The Pharisees' dreams of an earthly kingdom of the Messiah, of Jewish power over the Gentiles, of earthly glory, and earthly wealth, were what closed Nicodemus off from truths revealed by heaven.

But Nicodemus, a teacher of Israel, must understand that dreams are deception. Human opinions are not the will of God. "We speak what we know." Nicodemus himself acknowledged Jesus Christ as the Messenger of God. If Jesus is the Messenger of God, then He knows what He says. He bears witness only to what He has seen.

Therefore Nicodemus was contradicting himself when, while listening to the Messenger of God, he did not cease asking, how can these things be? Especially guilty was the Sanhedrin, with its stubbornness, unwilling even to hear the testimony of Jesus.

"We know, we speak" was said in correspondence to the Pharisaic "we know," in order to bring Nicodemus the Pharisee to self-awareness. "If I have told you earthly things, and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?"

However lofty the teaching on rebirth may be, in relation to the mysteries Jesus desired to reveal, it stands as earthly to heavenly, and sensible to supersensible. If even what has been said seems full of offense and foolishness, how will they receive heavenly things?

The thought of the need for spiritual rebirth is not so distant from the human mind that, by observing the soul and the history of the human race, it could not make it its own. But the counsels and mysteries of the Godhead are another matter. The teacher of Israel became silent and humbled himself. During the rest of the heavenly Teacher's speech he no longer says a word, but only listens and listens.

Thus in the prophet Ezekiel we read that the Lord says: "I will put a new spirit within them"; "I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be cleansed from your impurities"; "And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will give you," Ezek 11:19; 36:26. Compare also in chapter 37 Ezekiel's vision of the dead bones. The prophet Jeremiah, Jer 31:31-34, speaks of a New Covenant that will place and inscribe the Law in the very heart of men. In the prophet Isaiah we read, Is 44:3-4: "I will pour water upon the thirsty land, and streams upon the dry ground. I will pour My Spirit upon your seed, and My blessing upon your offspring." And in the prophet Joel, Joel 2 and following: "I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh."

But the teachers of Israel, men chiefly of earth and flesh, searched in the books of the Law only for those expressions which, as it seemed to them, promised earthly greatness to the people. Therefore they did not understand ideas of a higher order, which the Lord was bringing into human thought. They neither received nor reflected this new light, which illumined hidden recesses of the human soul hitherto unknown to them. They did not understand the new spiritual life.

Ignorance is not counted as their fault. The Lord rebukes them for unwillingness to know, for deliberate evasion of the light, and for proud self-delusion that they know everything and have nothing to learn. "Amen, amen, I say to you," says the Lord, "we speak what we know, and testify what we have seen, and you do not receive our testimony."

In these words, spoken by the Lord to Nicodemus, together with John Chrysostom and Theophylact of Bulgaria we see an utterance pronounced in the name of two Hypostases of the Holy Trinity. It is spoken in the name of the Father, as almighty God, and of the Son in His incarnate form, as the God-man. This is confirmed by other texts, for the Lord said: "I and the Father are one," Jn 10:30. In another place He says: "I do not receive testimony from man. The Father who sent Me has Himself borne witness to Me," Jn 5:34-37. And again: "If I bear witness of Myself, My testimony is true, for I know whence I came and where I am going. And if I judge, My judgment is true, for I am not alone, but I and the Father who sent Me," Jn 8:14-16.

Therefore, in the name of almighty God and of God in the flesh, the Lord speaks not only to Nicodemus. He speaks to the whole Old Testament world, and chiefly to Jewry, hardened in its prejudices. In the Lord's words to Nicodemus, as Theophylact of Bulgaria indicates, following John Chrysostom, there is an indication of this. If the teacher of Israel cannot understand spiritual regeneration, which takes place within man while still on earth, then how will he understand and believe when the Lord reveals the mysteries of the heavenly and ineffable birth, by which the only-begotten Son was born of the Father?

In other words, how will a man understand and receive by faith the dogma of the all-holy and consubstantial Trinity, when he does not yet understand that man can be reborn by water and the Spirit, be renewed, and become a new man?