Add parallel Print Page Options

Nicodemus asked, “How can a man be born again once he is old? Is it possible for him to enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus said,

“Amen, amen, I say to you,
no one can enter the kingdom of God
unless he is born of water and the Spirit.[a]
What is born of the flesh is flesh,
and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. John 3:5 Born of water and the Spirit: this phrase refers to Christian Baptism, the necessary vehicle for our spiritual rebirth, wrought by the Holy Spirit. It may be that here the evangelist is clarifying the words of the Lord according to a later and more mature understanding of Christian teaching, as lived in the primitive community.