Saturday, July 7, 2018

John 3 Being born of water and the Spirit

Additional note: Being born of water and the Spirit

There have been four main ways in which this expression has been interpreted:
1. Baptism in water by John the Baptist and baptism in the Spirit by Jesus. In support of this view is the fact that all previous references to ‘water’ in this Gospel relate to John’s baptizing ministry (1:26, 31, 33), and in 1:33 his baptizing ministry with water is compared to Jesus’ baptizing ministry with the Spirit. Accordingly, Jesus is saying that entrance to the kingdom involves submission to John’s baptism with water for repentance and Jesus’ baptism with the Spirit.
2. Christian water baptism and spiritual regeneration. In support of this view it can be said that the original readers of this Gospel would have seen in the reference to water an allusion to Christian baptism (rather than John’s baptism), and so the reference to being born of water and the Spirit would denote submission to Christian baptism, which in the early church was connected with the reception of the Spirit (Acts 2:38).
3. Natural birth and spiritual regeneration. Being born of water is a metaphor for natural human birth, water being an allusion either to amniotic fluid or semen, so Jesus was saying that to enter the kingdom one must be born spiritually as well as physically; by the Spirit as well as by water. In support of this view is the fact that in 3:6 Jesus contrasts being born of the flesh (physical birth) with being born of the Spirit (spiritual regeneration).
4. Spiritual regeneration alone is depicted with a double metaphor. In support of this view is the fact that elsewhere in this Gospel water functions as a metaphor for the Spirit (4:10, 13–15; 7:38) as it also does in places in the OT (e.g. Ezek. 36:25–27). The expression ‘water and the Spirit’ is a hendiadys, a figure of speech using two different words to denote one thing, something suggested by the fact that both ‘water’ and ‘Spirit’ are anarthrous (without the article) and governed by the one preposition (lit. ‘of water and spirit’, ex hydatos kai pneumatos).19 Jesus is saying that to enter the kingdom one must be born of water, i.e. of the Spirit. This view is also supported by the fact that in this passage Jesus uses a number of parallel expressions that are all related to seeing and entering the kingdom: 3:3: ‘born again / from above’; 3:5: ‘born of water and the Spirit’; 3:7: ‘born again / from above’; 3:8: ‘born of the Spirit’. If all these expressions are in fact parallel and synonymous, then to be ‘born again / from above’ and to be ‘born of water and the Spirit’ mean the same as to be ‘born of the Spirit’.


Colin G. Kruse, John: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 4, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 108–110.

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