John 3:11Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

That this is precisely so, and that Christ does not wish to show Nicodemus anything else, nor mean sensory sight here, is clear from what follows. After saying, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit," He adds: "We speak of what we know, and testify of what we have seen." Yet at that time this had not yet occurred. How, then, does He say, "what we have seen"? Is it not clear that He speaks of knowledge that is most exact and free from error?

"And you do not receive Our testimony." Thus the words "what We know" He says either of Himself together with the Father, or of Himself alone. The words "and you do not receive" do not here express indignation, but state what was the case. He did not say, "Can anything be more insensible than you, who do not receive what We proclaim with such exactness?" No, He said nothing of the kind, showing perfect meekness in both words and deeds. Meekly and quietly He foretells what is to come.

In this way He also urges and teaches us to meekness. When we speak with someone and do not persuade him, we must not be vexed or irritated. An irritated man can not only accomplish nothing, but also makes others still more distrustful. Therefore we must restrain anger. In our words we must persuade others not only without anger, but also without shouting, for shouting is food for anger.

Let us bridle this horse, so that we may overthrow its rider. Let us clip the wings of anger, and evil will not rise high. Anger is a cruel and dangerous illness, because through it we can destroy our souls. Therefore its entrance must be blocked from every side. It is unfitting that we can tame wild beasts, yet leave our own raging thoughts without attention.

Anger is a strong fire that devours everything. It harms the body, corrupts the soul, and makes a man unpleasant and shameful in appearance. If an angry man could see himself during his anger, he would need no other admonition, for nothing is more unpleasant than the face of an irritated man. Anger is a kind of drunkenness, or rather, worse than drunkenness and more wretched than a demon.

Only let us try not to shout, and we will find for ourselves the better path of philosophy. Therefore Paul commands us to suppress not only anger, but also shouting, saying: "Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor be put away from you," Eph 4:31. Let us obey this teacher of philosophy.

When we are angry with servants, let us think of our own sins and be ashamed by their meekness. When you abuse him, he silently endures the abuse. Thus you behave disorderly, while he philosophizes. Accept this in place of every admonition. Although he is a servant, he is a man who has an immortal soul, and is adorned with the same gifts as we are from the common Lord of all.

If, being equal in honor to us in the higher, spiritual privileges, he endures injuries from us with such meekness merely because we have some slight and insignificant advantage over him, what pardon or excuse shall we deserve? We cannot, or rather do not want to, philosophize for the fear of God, as he philosophizes from fear of us.

Therefore, imagining all this, and thinking of our sins and of the human nature common to all, let us strive always to speak meekly. Then, having become humble in heart, we may find rest for our souls both in the present life and in the life to come. May we all attain this by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

It was not natural for Nicodemus to forget what he had affirmed he knew about our Savior Jesus Christ, namely, that He had "come from God as a teacher" (Jn 3:2). Is not resistance to the One who is from God, and to God Himself, filled with the utmost danger? For this already proves to be fighting against God.

Besides, we who have authority to teach must learn from this that, for those only just coming to faith, faith expressed in simple statements is much better than any profound reasoning or more difficult explanation. Thus Paul fed with milk those who could not yet receive more solid food (1 Cor 3:2). The wise Solomon also says to us in one place, "Know well the souls of your flock" (Prov 27:23). He means that we should not offer the word of teaching indiscriminately to all who come, but should adapt ourselves properly to the measure of each person's receptivity.

"And you do not receive Our testimony." Since the Savior naturally has the Father and the Spirit in Himself, He speaks in the person of many witnesses, so that, in some way according to the Law of Moses, "by the mouth of two or three witnesses" the statement may be established.

Here He shows that the Jews had no wish at all to receive salvation, but rushed irresistibly and irrationally into the deep abyss of perdition. Indeed, if because of their great ignorance they prove unable to understand Christ's preaching, and if they do not wish to receive it even by faith, what other path of salvation could be devised?

Therefore the Savior beautifully and quite justly said that Jerusalem would be without excuse, since by its own will it drew destruction upon itself: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I desired to gather your children, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not. Behold, your house is left to you" (Mt 23:37-38).

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).

"And you do not receive Our testimony." He said this not in indignation, but gently stating what was happening and calmly foretelling what would yet happen. In this way He teaches us, when conversing with others, not to become angry, shout, or rage if we do not persuade them. Shouting is already an expression of anger. Rather, we should answer them patiently and try to make our words more persuasive.

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.

Speaking in the plural, "We speak" and "We bear witness," Jesus, according to Chrysostom, spoke either of Himself together with the Father, or only of Himself. Other interpreters think that Jesus Christ meant Himself and His disciples here.

Although the Evangelist does not explain whether Jesus' disciples were present at the conversation with Nicodemus, it is beyond doubt that the Evangelist John himself, who described this conversation in detail, heard it from beginning to end.

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.

"We know," in contrast to Nicodemus' "we know," signifies true, exact, and unerring knowledge. "We bear witness to what We have seen" is a decisive assurance of the truth of this knowledge. Without any doubt, seeing here means not sensory sight, but spiritual contemplation, which contains the fullness and unchangeable truth of knowledge. For the discussion concerns spiritual realities.

"Even among us, sight is more certain than the other senses. Therefore, when we wish to assure someone, we say that we have seen with our own eyes, and not that we know by hearsay. So also Christ speaks with Nicodemus in human fashion, deriving from this too a confirmation of His words. That this is precisely so, and that Christ does not wish to show Nicodemus anything else or mean sensory sight here, is clear from what follows. After saying, That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit, He adds: We speak what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen. But at that time this had not yet occurred. How, then, does He say, What we have seen? Is it not clear that He speaks of knowledge that is most exact and unerring?" Chrysostom.

Thus in the words under consideration the God-man points to His knowledge as most perfect, and to His person as unique and divine. By them He declares that His knowledge is not from the teaching of others. He did not attain such knowledge by the ordinary acquisition of knowledge. Rather, He knows and sees everything in Himself, just as men see with bodily eyes.

Teachers who are men, even those enlightened by God, speak only of what has been revealed to them. But Christ Himself directly knows what He says and sees what He bears witness to, which testifies to full, perfect, and divine knowledge.

But you, the Savior continues, do not receive Our testimony. That is, you do not believe what We teach and to which We bear witness. This was clearly revealed both from Nicodemus' questions and from the preceding conduct of the Jews toward Christ.

He did not meet in them full faith in Himself. As an evil generation, they asked signs from Him, tangible and sensory testimonies of His special calling. But they did not receive the testimony of the word. Meanwhile, He still had to speak to the Jews about the highest spiritual matters. What then would happen?

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?