Jesus and Nicodemus

3 There was a man named Nicodemus who was one of the Pharisees. He was an important Jewish leader. ² One night Nicodemus came to Jesus. He said, “Teacher, we know that you are a teacher sent from God. No one can do the miracles you do, unless God is with him.”

³ Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth. Unless you are born again, you cannot be in God’s kingdom.”

⁴ Nicodemus said, “But if a man is already old, how can he be born again? He cannot enter his mother’s body again. So how can he be born a second time?”

⁵ But Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth. Unless you are born from water and the Spirit, you cannot enter God’s kingdom. ⁶ A person’s body is born from his human parents. But a person’s spiritual life is born from the Spirit. ⁷ Don’t be surprised when I tell you, ‘You must all be born again.’ ⁸ The wind blows where it wants to go. You hear the wind blow. But you don’t know where the wind comes from or where it is going. It is the same with every person who is born from the Spirit.”

⁹ Nicodemus asked, “How can all this be possible?”

¹⁰ Jesus said, “You are an important teacher in Israel. But you still don’t understand these things?

⁵⁰ But Nicodemus was there in that group. He was the one who had gone to see Jesus before.^[a] Nicodemus said, ⁵¹ “Our law does not judge a man without hearing him. We cannot judge him until we know what he has done.”

⁵² They answered, “Are you from Galilee too? Study the Scriptures. You will learn that no prophet comes from Galilee.”

⁵³ And everyone left and went home.^[b]