John 3:8Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

It is precisely of the wind that He says, "You hear its voice, but do not know whence it comes or where it goes." If He says, "The spirit breathes where it wills," He does not thereby mean that the wind has any power of choice. He indicates only its natural movement, unhindered and strong.

Scripture customarily speaks in this way even of inanimate things, for example, "creation was subjected to futility, not willingly" (Rom 8:20). Thus the words "breathes where it wills" mean that the wind cannot be restrained. It spreads everywhere. No one can prevent it from rushing here and there. It disperses with great force, and no one can hold back its impulse.

"And you hear its voice," that is, its roar and sound, "but do not know whence it comes or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." In this the whole matter is contained. If you cannot explain the origin or direction of the wind, though you perceive it by hearing and touch, why do you strive to comprehend the action of the Spirit of God? You do not understand even the action of the wind, though you hear its sounds.

Thus the words "breathes where it wills" are spoken to signify the authority of the Comforter. They mean this: if no one can restrain the wind, but it rushes where it wills, much less can the laws of nature, the conditions of bodily birth, or anything else like them restrain the action of the Spirit.

That the words "you hear its voice" are spoken precisely of the wind is clear from this. Christ, conversing with one who did not believe and did not know the action of the Spirit, would not have said, "You hear His voice." Therefore, as we do not see the wind, though it makes a sound, so spiritual birth is invisible to bodily eyes.

Yet the wind is still a body, though the subtlest one, because everything subject to sense is body. If you are not troubled because you do not see this body, and for that reason do not deny its existence, why are you disturbed when hearing about the Spirit? Why do you demand such precision here, when you do not do so in the case of a body?

Concerning the Spirit it is said in one place that He does all things with authority and that nothing hinders Him. The words "He breathes where He wills" (Jn 3:8), though spoken of the wind, prove precisely this.

Let Macedonius the Spirit-fighter and Eunomius, his predecessor, be ashamed. The former ranks the Spirit as a slave. Yet here he hears that the wind breathes where it wills. Therefore, still more, the Spirit has autonomous movement and acts where and how He wills.

Eunomius first erred in this same matter and called the Spirit a creature. Then he carried his audacity so far as to claim that he knows God as he knows himself. Let him hear, then, that he does not know the movement and impulse of the wind. How then, transgressor, do you dare claim for yourself knowledge of the Essence of God?

Therefore He says, "Do not marvel that I said to you, You must be born again." "The Spirit breathes where He wills, and you hear His voice, but you do not know whence He comes or where He goes." No one sees the Spirit. How, then, do we hear the voice of the Spirit? The Psalm speaks: "The Spirit is voice." The Gospel speaks: "The Spirit is voice." The divine discourse speaks: "The Spirit is voice."

For you hear the voice, yet do not know whence He comes or where He goes. But if you are born of the Spirit, so it will be. He who has not yet been born of the Spirit does not know of you whence you come or where you go. Therefore He says further, "So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."

No one sees the Spirit. But how do we hear the voice of the Spirit? The Psalm sounds forth: this is the voice of the Spirit. The Gospel sounds forth: this is the voice of the Spirit. Divine speech sounds forth: this is the voice of the Spirit. You hear His voice, but do not know whence He comes or where He goes.

But if you have been born of the Spirit, the same will be true of you. He who has not yet been born of the Spirit will not know of you whence you come or where you go. Concerning this He says further, "So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."

For He breathes with full authority where He wills. He wills to breathe in those capable of receiving Him and pure in mind. When He breathes God's gifts into them, they do not know whence or for what reason any gift has been sent to them. They do not know toward what outcome the sending of the gift leads. They only hear the voice, that is, the actualization of the gift. This becomes manifest because of purity of life, and in some way gives forth a voice. It may be the gift of teaching, or of healing, or [...].

The expression may also mean "the breath of air," ἀερίου πνεύματος. Compare the Areopagitica: "the name of the aerial spirit, ἀερίου πνεύματος, which is given to the wind," c. h. 15, 6. Yet one should bear in mind that "aerial spirit" is also used with reference to demons. Thus Basil the Great writes in his letter to the fallen virgin: "But now, at the slight blowing of the aerial spirit, άερίου πνεύματος, which now works in the sons of disobedience, Eph 2:2, you have denied." In Eph 2:2 the reference is precisely to unclean spirits ruling in the air, that is, demons. Still, the most likely meaning here is "aerial spirit" in the sense of wind.

In this passage, St Maximus probably takes his point of departure from Chrysostom's interpretation: "It is of the wind that He says, 'You hear its sound, but do not know whence it comes or where it goes.' But when He says, 'The spirit breathes where it wills,' He does not mean that the wind has any freedom of choice. He indicates only its natural movement, unhindered and strong. Scripture customarily speaks this way even of inanimate things, for example: 'creation was subjected to vanity, not willingly,' Rom 8:20. Thus the words 'breathes where it wills' mean that the wind is irresistible, that it spreads everywhere, and that no one can prevent it from being carried here and there. It is dispersed with great force, and no one can restrain its impulse," Joan. Chrys. in Joann. hom., PG 59, 154.46-58.

Chrysostom, however, then passes from the wind to the Holy Spirit, interpreting Christ's words as a comparison. "If," He says, "you cannot explain either the origin or the direction of the wind, though you perceive it by hearing and touch, why strive to understand the action of the Spirit of God? You do not understand the action of the wind, though you hear its sounds. Thus the words 'breathes where it wills' were spoken to signify the authority of the Comforter. They mean this: if no one can restrain the wind, but it moves where it wills, then still more can neither the laws of nature, nor the conditions of bodily birth, nor anything else of this kind restrain the action of the Spirit. That the words 'you hear its voice' are spoken precisely of the wind is clear from this: Christ, speaking with one who was unbelieving and did not know the action of the Spirit. Would not have said, 'you hear His voice.' Therefore, just as we do not see the wind, though it makes a sound, so spiritual birth is invisible to bodily eyes," Joan. Chrys. in Joann. hom., PG 59, 155.1-12.

Thus, in Chrysostom, Christ's words are not understood as applied literally to the Holy Spirit, but only by way of comparison. In St Maximus, however, they are understood literally in relation to the Holy Spirit. Evidently Chrysostom was prevented from such a literal understanding by the fact that the Gospel seems to speak of a sensory perception of the spirit, "you hear his voice," which might seem inapplicable to the Holy Spirit. For St Maximus this was no obstacle. Of course, this was not because he thought of the Holy Spirit in sensory terms. Rather, as is clear from the text of his answer, he interpreted the hearing of the Spirit's "voice" as the manifestation of His action, that is, phenomenologically.

Thus, not for the first time in his questions and answers, St Maximus follows the literal sense of the divine words more closely than Chrysostom. Compare qu. dub. 181. At the same time, this "literal" understanding of Scripture in St Maximus proves to be spiritual in the highest degree. That is, in his exegesis we encounter the transfiguration of the letter of Scripture.

There is a lacuna in the text.

The Lord spoke of wind and air: "The Spirit breathes where He wills, and you hear His voice, but do not know whence He comes and where He goes." For wind too is movement, the impulse of air. Therefore Gregory the Theologian said: I understand by air this great and abundant wealth, not measured according to dignities or prosperity, but, like manna, distributed and received in sufficient quantity and given in equal measure. It is the chariot of winged creatures, the seat of the winds.

When the Spirit has taught man all this, He then gives him over to temptation. Everything that had been sweet to man before becomes burdensome and painful. Many who undergo such temptation, lacking spiritual experience, cannot endure the weight of the trials and become fleshly.

Of them Paul says, "Having begun with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain?" (Gal 3:3-4). What is suffered in vain is labor borne for God without fruit. When a man utterly despairs of these labors and falls away, he not only loses the reward for his labors, but also undergoes severe punishments. For he has despised the Power from above and has not chosen it.

Explaining to Nicodemus what "born from above" means, the Lord said, "The Spirit breathes where He wills, and you hear His voice, but do not know whence He comes or where He goes." No one knows where the dwelling of the wind's breath is, whence it comes, or the end of its course, where it hastens. No one can hinder it, measure it, or seize it. Likewise, no one can direct or restrain the course of rivers.

The same is true in the soul. No one can hold back his thoughts, hinder the currents of the mind, master the source of the reason's thoughts, know whence it proceeds, or restrain it where it goes. For where is it not? It abides here, and outside the mind and reason in distant regions.

If, says the Lord, what is earthly and lies in our hands is such and so incomprehensible, how much more incomprehensible is the soul of one born from above, who has received the heavenly Spirit of the Lord and is led by Him in the inner man. Wherever it hastens, behold, it is already there. For while it is still here, the heavenly and divine Spirit comes, carries it up to the heavens, teaches it, and in all things this soul is incomprehensible.

He came because the Spirit comes to the saints from the saints, so that those who cannot always possess Him may more often be strengthened by the manifestation of His light returning for a time. In the one Mediator between God and men, the Man Jesus (1 Tim 2:5), the Spirit truly abides forever. In Him He finds no stain of impure thought that would drive Him away.

Of course, he had heard nothing of this in the Pharisaic schools. They had lost spiritual understanding of spiritual things and brought what was lofty down to the sensory and earthly.

What does it mean to be born of the Spirit? How does he become spirit?

These were the questions whose resolution he now needed.

The Savior, anticipating or answering such perplexities, says: "The Spirit breathes where He wills, and you hear His voice, but you do not know whence He comes and whither He goes. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

Among the ancient interpreters of Holy Scripture, the holy fathers and teachers of the Church, we find two ways of understanding these words of the Savior.

They correspond to the twofold understanding and interpretation of the word Spirit.

This word signifies the Holy Spirit, as we have seen. It also signifies wind, or the breath of the wind (Gen 8:1; 3 Kgs 19:11 and elsewhere).

Here some, such as Augustine and Origen, understand the word in the first meaning. Others, such as Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, and Theophylact, understand it in the latter meaning.

According to the interpretation of the first group, the meaning of the Savior's words is this.

The Spirit breathes where He wills. The Holy Spirit pours out His gracious gifts upon whom He wills.

That is, He pours them out not upon all, but only upon those who are disposed to receive His grace.

"And you hear His voice." You hear His words in the Psalm, in the Gospel, in preaching, in all Scripture, and especially in the book of Acts.

Or, as others note, the Savior here prophesies the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost.

Then there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind (Acts 2:2).

"But you do not know whence He comes and whither He goes." You do not know the ways and actions of this Spirit, because you do not understand Scripture, but hear only the sounds of its words.

"So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." That is, the actions of the Spirit are also incomprehensible.

They say this opinion is favored, first, by the fact that the definite article is left before the word spirit here.

Didymus, examining the different meanings of the word spirit in Scripture, observed that when this word is set with the definite article, it signifies the Holy Spirit.

Second, both above and below this passage, the name Spirit means the Holy Spirit.

Therefore here too the same Holy Spirit must be understood by Spirit.

Third, if this word is understood of the wind, then it is incorrectly said: "you do not know whence it comes and whither it goes."

For not everyone is ignorant of where the wind comes from and where it goes, as blessed Augustine says.

According to the interpretation of those who understand wind by the word spirit, the meaning of the Savior's saying is this.

Spiritual birth, necessary for participation in the Kingdom of the Messiah, is incomprehensible.

Why marvel at this, when even in the nature surrounding us much is incomprehensible?

Take, for example, the wind. It blows where it wills, not in one direction and not in one place.

It blows with such power that it cannot be restrained. You hear its sound and roar, but you do not know where it begins and where it ends.

So too spiritual rebirth is incomprehensible to man. It can be known only by its fruits and consequences, not in the very act of rebirth itself.

The grounds for understanding wind by spirit, and for interpreting the Savior's whole saying in the sense just stated, are the following.

First, Nicodemus is instructed about the incomprehensibility of spiritual rebirth by the incomprehensibility of many things in nature, namely, the wind.

"Having said, 'That which is born of the Spirit is spirit,' Christ was already drawing Nicodemus away from fleshly representations.

"But since he still did not understand what His words meant, Christ transfers his thought to another image.

"He does not detain him among gross bodies, and He does not speak of beings that are altogether bodiless, since Nicodemus could not grasp such things even when hearing of them.

"Rather, He finds something between bodily and bodiless being, the movement of the wind, and through it instructs him" (Chrysostom).

Second, there are the words: "you hear its voice."

"It is precisely of the wind that He, Christ, says: 'You hear its voice.'

"That these words were spoken precisely of the wind is clear from this: Christ, speaking with one who did not believe and did not know the actions of the Spirit, would not have said, 'You hear His voice'" (Chrysostom).

Third, there are the words: "So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

From these words it follows that the preceding words contain a comparison, and these contain the thing compared, or the expression of the main thought.

But in a comparison the objects must be distinct.

Therefore, if in the last words the Holy Spirit must be understood by Spirit, then in the first words something else must be understood, namely, the wind.

Considering these two interpretations and their grounds, one cannot fail to see that the latter is more fitting to the sense of the text.

The grounds on which it rests are also stronger.

In the first interpretation, there is no complete correspondence between the objects compared.

When the word spirit signifies the Holy Spirit, it is not always set with the definite article.

Even above, in this same discourse (Jn 3:5), it stands without the article.

Likewise, when wind is spoken of, the article is sometimes also placed before the word spirit (3 Kgs 19:11).

In the sequence of this discourse, the word spirit does not everywhere signify the Holy Spirit (Jn 3:6).

And although we see the movement of the wind, we do not know whence it comes and whither it goes. We know neither its beginning nor its end.

Nevertheless, the first explanation cannot be entirely denied.

We cannot think that the Holy Spirit is not at all meant here by the word spirit.

It is not without reason that the Evangelist John expressed this notion by this very word and not by another.

He did otherwise in another place, using the word anemos to signify wind (Jn 3:6, 18).

For this same reason, the last of the explanations given cannot be regarded as complete when only wind is understood by the word spirit.

One may think that the all-wise Teacher deliberately used here a word that signifies both notions: the notion of wind and the notion of the divine Spirit.

One may recall here that breathing of Jesus Christ by which He communicated the Holy Spirit to the Apostles.

He breathed and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit" (Jn 20:22).

The visible breathing of the Savior symbolically signified the gift of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles.

That is, it was both the sign and the thing signified together.

Such designations of invisible and spiritual things by sensory and visible things are also found in the Old Testament books.

For example, the unknown works of God are likened to the unknown paths of the wind (Eccl 11:5).

Thus, in connection with the preceding words, the fuller meaning of the Savior's words under consideration may be expressed as follows.

You, Nicodemus, hear from Me about spiritual rebirth, necessary for everyone who wishes to participate in My Kingdom.

You do not understand. You marvel and are perplexed about what rebirth from the Spirit is.

But can one refuse to believe everything that is incomprehensible to man, that is above his understanding, and that does not fall under his senses?

Can one doubt all such things as impossible?

Remember that in visible nature there are, and daily occur, many things hidden from man's senses.

They are incomprehensible, yet no one doubts them and no one rejects them.

Here, for example, is spirit, the wind. It blows where it wills, unhindered and unrestrained.

You perceive this, but you know neither the beginning from which it comes forth nor the end where it ceases.

You do not know how it acts. You perceive that it acts only by its effects, for example, by its sound and the like.

Exactly so is the spiritual rebirth of man by the power and action of the Holy Spirit.

It is incomprehensible in the very act itself. It is known only by its fruits or consequences.

The regenerate person himself does not understand how rebirth was accomplished in him, although he senses that it has been accomplished.

He senses this from the actions that the Spirit produces in his life.

From the outside, this cannot be noticed except by these same actions, or fruits of the Holy Spirit.

"So if," He says, "you cannot explain either the origin or the direction of the wind, which you nevertheless perceive by hearing and touch, why do you try to comprehend the action of the Spirit of God?

"As the wind is invisible, though it makes a sound, so spiritual birth is also invisible to bodily eyes.

"But the wind is still a body, although a most subtle one, because everything subject to sense is a body.

"If, then, you are not vexed that you do not see this body, and for that reason do not reject its existence, why are you troubled when you hear of the Spirit?

"Why do you demand such exactness here, when you do not do so with respect to a body?" (Chrysostom).

When speaking of spirit, the Savior is speaking of the wind, not of the Spirit of grace. Concerning the Spirit of grace He would not have said, "You hear His voice." Thus the movements of the wind are ungraspable and unrestrainable. It blows where and how it wills.

In exactly the same way, the actions of the Spirit of grace are incomprehensible. Neither the laws of nature, nor human opinions, nor Pharisaic righteousness, nor the sins of the tax collector can restrain them.