John 3:3 Commentary and Bible Study

Jesus answered him, reading his heart and knowing what he had come to ask, but taking the conversation in an entirely new unexpected direction. He did not answer him and give an answer which had nothing to do with the intentions of Nicodemus. ‘Verily, verily, I say unto thee,’ – I most solemnly assure you, we might say today – ‘Except a man be born again.’ A completely new life, a new start, a radical change is needed – something which is done to him, which he cannot do to himself, like birth. ‘Except [unless] a man be born again’ – ‘born from above’, many think would be a better translation – ‘he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ He cannot see it. We do not know the precise words Jesus used in Aramaic, but many think that the word he is most likely to have used implied something like this – and it comes through in our King James Version – he cannot even begin to see the kingdom of God. There is a little element of, what would be called today, ‘put down’ in it. He may be a teacher, he may be a leader, but he cannot even understand these things, let alone have them and possess them, unless he is radically changed and born again. The great change, a new life is essential.