John 3:2Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"No one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him." Thus Nicodemus still expresses a heretical thought when he says that Jesus performs His works with outside assistance and needs the help of others.

What then does Christ do? See His extreme condescension. He did not say, "I have no need at all of another's help, but do everything by My own authority."

Nor did He say, "I am the true Son of God and have the same power as Him Who begot Me." He did not say this, because it was still inaccessible to the hearer.

I always say, and now I say again, that at that time Christ intended not so much to reveal His own dignity as to persuade them that He did nothing contrary to the Father's will.

Therefore in words He constantly appears meek, but not so in deeds. When He works miracles, He does everything with authority.

Thus He says, "I will; be cleansed" (Mk 1:41). "Talitha, arise" (Mk 5:41). "Stretch out your hand" (Mt 12:13). "Your sins are forgiven you" (Lk 5:20).

"Peace, be still" (Mk 4:39). "Take up your bed and go to your house" (Lk 5:24). "I say to you, unclean spirit, come out of him" (cf. Lk 4:35; 8:29).

"Let it be to you as you desire" (Mt 15:28). "If anyone says anything to you, say, The Lord has need of them" (Mt 21:3). "Today you will be with Me in Paradise" (Lk 23:43).

"You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not kill. But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without cause shall be liable to judgment" (Mt 5:21-22).

"Come after Me, and I will make you fishers of men" (Mt 4:19). In all cases we see His great authority.

In His deeds, no one could condemn Him for what took place. How would that have been possible?

If His words had not come to pass and had not been fulfilled according to His command, one of the Jews could have said that His commands came from vainglory.

But since all of them were fulfilled, the accomplishment of events involuntarily stopped their mouths. As for His words, the Jews, in their shamelessness, could accuse Him of vainglory.

So now, in His conversation with Nicodemus, He does not openly say anything lofty. Yet in a hidden manner He raises him from low thoughts.

He teaches that He is able of Himself to work miracles. For the Father begot Him perfect, all-powerful in Himself, and having nothing imperfect.

Let us see how He proves this. Nicodemus says, "Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him."

He thought that, in speaking thus of Christ, he had said something great. What does Christ do?

He shows him that he has not yet reached even the porch of true knowledge. He does not even stand before its doors, but still wanders somewhere outside the Kingdom.

So too does everyone who would speak in this way. Whoever has such a conception of the Only-begotten has not yet entered into true knowledge.

What, then, does Christ say?

And what does he say about Nicodemus? "There was a ruler of the Jews named Nicodemus. He came to Him by night and said to Him, 'Rabbi! We know that You are a Teacher come from God'" (cf. Jn 3:1-2).

Therefore he too believed in His name. And why did he believe? The Evangelist continues: "No one can do these miracles that You do unless God is with him" (Jn 3:2).

If Nicodemus was among those many who believed in His name, then let us consider, by turning to this Nicodemus, why Jesus did not entrust Himself to them (Jn 2:24).

He came to Jesus by night, partly from fear of his unbelieving companions, who had already taken an openly hostile stance toward Christ. Perhaps he also wished to avoid making his visit public. He did not want to increase still further the growing fame of the prophet from Nazareth.

Received by Jesus, Nicodemus says: "We," that is, the Pharisees and scribes, "know that no one can do such signs as You do unless God is with him. Therefore we acknowledge that You are a teacher come from God."

Thus Nicodemus expressed his own view, and perhaps that of several other Pharisees. He regarded Jesus as a teacher, a rabbi, a man chosen by God, perhaps even a prophet, but not the Messiah.

Nicodemus knew that John the Baptist had pointed out Jesus to those sent from the Sanhedrin as the expected Messiah. John confirmed his indication by testifying that he had seen the Holy Spirit descending upon Him. He had also heard the voice of God Himself, bearing witness that Jesus was His beloved Son.

Nicodemus certainly saw how Jesus drove the merchants from the temple. He saw Him publicly call that temple the house of His Father, and thereby call Himself the Son of God. Nicodemus undoubtedly was present at the miracles in which Jesus manifested His divine authority and power.

After all this, he, a learned Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin, calls Jesus simply Teacher. He believes neither John's testimony, nor His own words, nor even the miracles performed by Him.

Christ knew the cause of this false opinion about Him among the Pharisees. He knew that the Pharisees, and after them all the Jews guided by them, expected a different Messiah. In the Messiah they awaited a mighty earthly king. He would conquer the whole world and make the Jews, and especially the Pharisees, rulers over all nations.

He knew that, according to the teaching of the Pharisees, every Jew would enter the Kingdom of the Messiah as its necessary member. This was because he was a Jew, a descendant of Abraham. All the more did they believe this of every Pharisee.

Knowing all this, and wishing to turn Nicodemus from the false path on which he stood to the true path, Christ begins His conversation with him by proving that something else is necessary. To enter the Kingdom of the Messiah, it is not enough to be a Jew and a descendant of Abraham. Rebirth is necessary. "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God."

To understand better the meaning of the Lord's conversation with Nicodemus, we must make a brief digression.

When God created the world, He did not limit Himself to creating soulless nature alone. He is the God of the living, not of the dead (Mt 22:32; Mk 12:27; Lk 20:38). Of course, He would not have ceased to be God even if there were no living beings at all.

Yet for the world created by Him to comprehend His greatness and the wisdom of His creative work, there had to be living rational beings in the world. A rational bond had to be established between the Creator and His creation. Such a being on earth is man.

God instructed the first people how they should live in order to be worthy sons of their Creator. He revealed to them His will, the eternal and unchangeable law written, as it were, in human hearts: Love God. Love your neighbor.

When He commanded them not only to keep but also to cultivate Paradise (Gen 2:15), He made labor their duty. This law of labor was not given as punishment for sin, since they had not yet sinned. It was given as a necessary condition of happiness.

Therefore: Love God. Love your neighbor. And labor. This is the will of God, which the people created by Him were to observe. By conforming all their actions to this law, they were to form the Kingdom of God on earth. That is, they were to become a society of happy people governed by God Himself.

In this lay the purpose of their creation. In this lay their calling. If they had truly fulfilled this law of the Supreme King, a kingdom of peace, love, and goodness would have been established on earth. It would have been the true Kingdom of God, an earthly Paradise.

But the first people disobeyed God and lost the right to be members of His Kingdom. Yet they were taught that this Kingdom, this earthly Paradise, was not lost to them forever. They could return it if they fulfilled the will of God in everything.

It seemed that living according to God was not difficult. God did not require anything impossible or unbearable from people: Love God. Love your neighbor. And labor. He required nothing more. Yet the first people could not fulfill even this little.

Soon enmity arose between them, and the earth was stained with the blood of a murdered man. Other crimes followed the first murder, and sinful people fell morally lower and lower. No calamities could bring them to reason. They began to forget not only the will of God, but God Himself.

It was necessary to remind them of this will. It was proclaimed through Moses on Mount Sinai in the Ten Commandments.

The great Moses had dreamed for forty years of freeing the Jews from Egyptian slavery. He wished to form from them the Kingdom of God, governed by God Himself. Yet he was forced to admit that morally corrupted people could not precisely fulfill God's will as declared in the Ten Commandments.

Recognizing this, he made many concessions and many departures from the Sinaitic commandments. Of course, he could have abolished all laws and customs that contradicted the Ten Commandments. He could have issued new ones in harmony with them. Yet even to him this seemed impossible.

He could indeed issue new laws and compel obedience to them by fear of severe punishments. But he could not transform the human heart, corrupted through the ages. He could not reeducate and regenerate man, and make him love.

Therefore he could not restore the Kingdom of free people who love God and one another. He could not return the lost Paradise to humanity.

For this, another Man had to appear. He would not only explain to people the will of God and the true calling of man. He would also regenerate them to a new life. By the example of His own life, He would prove that precise fulfillment of God's will is possible and even easy.

Moses understood this. Therefore, in his farewell before death, foretelling the coming of such a Man, he said: "The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among you, from your brethren. Him you shall hear" (Deut 18:15).

After the death of Moses, the Jews sometimes repented and turned to God, and sometimes crudely turned away from Him. Yet the moments of repentance did not last long. For this, many calamities befell them.

In vain did the inspired prophets call them to God. In vain did they wish to unite them under the headship of the Supreme King. The moral fall of humanity was so terrible that only God Himself could save it.

The prophets understood this and divinely foretold the imminent coming of the Deliverer, the Reconciler: "The Redeemer will come to Zion" (Isa 59:20). The Desired One will come (Hag 2:4-7). "Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion. Your King is coming to you" (Zech 9:9).

Yes, they all understood that people first had to be reeducated and regenerated. Only then would the renewal of the Kingdom of God be possible, and the lost Paradise be returned to humanity. They understood that such rebirth could not take place without God's help. For this, God's Messenger had to come.

The desired Christ came and began with the reeducation of corrupted people. In His Sermon on the Mount, in the so-called Beatitudes, He taught people how they should reeducate themselves. He taught how they must be regenerated in order to be worthy sons of the Heavenly Father.

They were to form the Kingdom of God on earth, or that lost Paradise whose return the best people of the ancient world had desired. Yet in His Sermon on the Mount, after giving detailed rules for regeneration and self-correction, the Lord said that rebirth is impossible by human powers alone, without God's help. Therefore, pray to God for help. Ask, and it will be given you.

It was precisely about such self-correction and rebirth that Christ was now speaking with Nicodemus. Taken separately, without connection to the Sermon on the Mount, His conversation may seem incomprehensible to someone.

Yet if we consider that what was said in the Sermon on the Mount was probably also said during the Lord's first journey to Jerusalem, and that Nicodemus may have heard it before his night conversation, then the Lord's words become fully clear. They concerned the necessity of rebirth for entering the Kingdom of God.

Rabbi is equivalent to the Greek Διδασκαλος, teacher. It was generally applied to persons who inspired special reverence by advanced age or rank.

Among the degrees of rabbinic rank the following gradation was observed: "Rabbi is higher than Rav, and Rabban is higher than Rabbi." Rabbouni is simply the same title Rabbi with the addition of the pronoun "my."

To call a teacher or rabbi by his own name was considered insufficiently respectful. Geikie, p. 580, note bb.

He said, "We know that You are a Teacher come from God. For no one can do these miracles that You do unless God is with Him." Tell us, then, wherein lies the true path to salvation?

In this question, despite its apparent sincerity, there is partly a shade of Pharisaic exclusiveness. In Nicodemus' soul there was not the slightest doubt concerning his own admission into the Kingdom of the Messiah.

The rabbinic traditions known to him declared that while "the nations of the world will be like a burning furnace on the day of judgment, Israel, as such, will receive salvation."

They also said that "in the future world, or in the Kingdom of the Messiah, there was a special portion appointed for all Israel," and that "God has forever sanctified Israel for Himself."

In regard to love and favor, every Jew was placed on a level "with the angels of the Presence, the angels of praise, and the holy angels who stand before Him." Book of Enoch 2:15. Talmud cited in Lightfoot 3:265, 269.

Therefore, being essentially confident that he would be a necessary member of the Kingdom of the Messiah, he only wished to know what his duties would be in that Kingdom, which Jesus seemed to have been sent to proclaim.

The Pharisees and rulers loved the glory of men more than the glory of God, and did not openly confess their faith in Christ (Jn 12:42-43). Nicodemus, of course, was subject to this weakness. Even afterward he was only a secret disciple of Christ, like Joseph of Arimathea, with whom he came for Christ's burial. Thus his pride and love of glory would have suffered if he had come openly to Jesus. "Nicodemus is ready to believe. Yet he is overcome by shame that is not good, and he does not despise human glory. He does not dare speak openly, but limps, as it is written, on both knees. On the one hand, he is drawn toward faith by the promptings of conscience, because of the greatness of the miracles. On the other hand, he fears losing the authority he had among the people, for he was a ruler of the Jews. Thinking that he could preserve this dignity among his own people and secretly be faithful, he comes to Jesus, hiding his intention in the darkness of night" (Cyril of Alexandria).

Thus Nicodemus, having resolved to hear the teaching of Jesus Christ, decided to come to Him by night. By this he wished to hide from the gaze of outsiders, so as not to give occasion for any talk unfavorable to him. This was indeed convenient. But what of pride and false shame? Nicodemus, as it appears, had enough strength of will and enough love for the truth to overcome them. In this case his conscience could, of course, find reassurance in the Jewish custom, sanctified by the traditions of the elders, of studying by night. This was considered a sign of wisdom. Perhaps he also consoled himself with the hope that at night, alone, he could hear more fully the teaching of the wonderworking Prophet. For during the day He was constantly surrounded by the people or by His disciples.

However this may be, in any case one cannot fail to see a certain self-denial on Nicodemus's part in his coming to Jesus. It was incomplete, of course, because he came by night. Still, in Nicodemus's position this is excusable. He did not yet fully believe in Jesus as Christ the Messiah. He did not recognize His divine dignity, and therefore did not have the courage to follow Him openly. His still weak conscience could be frightened, and caution in such a case seemed useful. The Savior Himself never condemned such caution, and here He did not condemn it. "The man-loving God did not reject him even for this. He did not reproach him or deprive him of His teaching. Rather, with great meekness He converses with him and reveals to him very exalted matters of faith. For this man was far more worthy of condescension than those who did this out of malice" (Chrysostom).

Greeting Jesus Christ with the honorable name Rabbi, or Teacher, Nicodemus directly states his view of Jesus. He says how he understands Him, and in this gives the reason for his nighttime coming to Him: "We know that You are a Teacher come from God. For no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him" (Jn 3:2). In whose name, together with his own, does Nicodemus express this view of Jesus, saying, "We know"? Does he mean here his sect, his fellow members in the Sanhedrin, or some of them? Judging from all the Gospel narratives, the Pharisees and members of the Sanhedrin are presented as decisively unbelieving in Jesus Christ. It would seem, then, that Nicodemus could not have spoken on behalf of some of his sect or of the Sanhedrin, much less on behalf of the whole sect and the whole Sanhedrin. If so, Nicodemus would have spoken falsely. Yet the God-man, knowing better than anyone the inner state of Nicodemus's soul and the disposition of his like-minded companions, does not convict him of falsehood. He leaves the expression "we know" as just.

But here we must remember that this event took place at the very beginning of Christ's ministry, at the first Passover. The Pharisees and the Sanhedrin had not yet been embittered against the Savior. They had not yet attributed His miracles to the cooperation of dark powers. They had no cause to persecute Him, because He had not yet reproved them. At that time, one may think, they did not yet have one definite notion about the person of Jesus. Many could understand Him as indefinitely as Nicodemus understood Him. Consequently, he could speak in this way on behalf of at least some members of his sect and the Sanhedrin.

On the other hand, he could have spoken to Jesus on behalf of those among the people who truly saw in Jesus a wonderworking Teacher come from God, and who believed in Him (Jn 2:23). Perhaps Nicodemus even said this word, "we know," without having anyone definite in mind, as if impersonally.

Nicodemus expresses his view of Jesus Christ in the words: "You are a Teacher come from God." Apparently, Nicodemus states a true conception of the God-man in general outline, as a Teacher come from God. The Savior Himself calls Himself One Who has proceeded and come from God (Jn 8:42), and One sent by God (Jn 17:3, 8). He also assigns the title Teacher uniquely to Himself (Mt 23:8). But when He uses such expressions about Himself, "come from God" and "sent by God," He joins to them a special and higher meaning. He veiledly expresses the mystery of His relation to God the Father. He is sent and has come into the world, yet abides in the bosom of the Father. By this He indicates His person as the Messiah, the Son of God, and His mission as special and extraordinary.

In the mouth of Nicodemus, the expression "come from God" does not have this meaning. It does not express the concept of the divinity of Jesus' person. He used it in the same sense in which it is used of all prophets and wonderworking teachers. He does not confuse Jesus with ordinary Jewish teachers, the rabbis. Yet neither does he distinguish Him from all those teachers and prophets whom God sent particularly from time to time. Some of them were clothed with the power of working miracles.

This is clear from the reason Nicodemus gives as the basis of his view of Jesus as a Teacher come from God: "For no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him." Thus Nicodemus honors Jesus Christ as One come from God only because He works signs, and great ones. Such signs can be worked only by one with whom God is. From these miracles he concludes that God is with Jesus and that God helps Him. He sees in Him the presence of divine power, and therefore concludes that Jesus has a special calling, and nothing more. He does not yet acknowledge the divinity of Jesus' own person. He does not think that He Himself is the Son of God. He does not see Him as the active cause of the miracles, but as an instrument through which God performs miracles.

"Nicodemus is still moving below. He still has a human conception of Christ and speaks of Him as of a prophet. He supposes nothing particular in Him because of the signs. He still expresses a heretical thought when he says that Jesus performs His works by outside assistance and has need of help from others" (Chrysostom). "When Nicodemus calls Him, Jesus Christ, a Teacher come from God, whom God assists, he does not yet acknowledge Him as God by essence. He clearly does not understand the cause of the Incarnation, but understands Him as a mere man and has a low conception of Him" (Cyril of Alexandria). "He calls Him Teacher as a mere man, for this was the opinion he had of Him" (Theophylact).

"Many even of the rulers believed in Him," says the Evangelist John, "but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they be put out of the synagogue" (Jn 12:42).

One of the believing rulers, and one lofty in spirit, is known also by name: Joseph of Arimathea (Lk 23:51).

The Pharisees reproachfully said to their servants, who had spoken an unwelcome truth, "Has any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in Him," that is, in Jesus (Jn 7:48)?

But they were lying, either from ignorance of the matter or even consciously, merely to force silence about an unwelcome truth.

"We know," says Nicodemus, "that You are a Teacher come from God. For no one can do these miracles that You do unless God is with Him."

Nicodemus does not believe in Jesus without reflection. He believes with awareness of reasonable grounds that oblige him to believe in the Son of Joseph.

Miracles cannot be worked without authorization from God and without the help of the almighty power of God. This is a truth beyond doubt.

Therefore it should also be beyond doubt that Jesus, who works miracles before all, is the Messenger of God. Thus Nicodemus reasoned. One would have to renounce sound sense to wish to condemn Nicodemus.

Let the faith of the ruler Nicodemus not yet be faith in the Son of God, but only in the Messenger of God. Faith grows like a small tree.

It is good that there is faith. It is still better that this faith is not barren, but brought the ruler to hear instruction in faith and piety.