There was a man from the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews.[1] 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. No one could do the signs you’re doing unless God were with him.”
3 Jesus answered him, “Amen, amen, I tell you — unless a person is born from above, they cannot see the kingdom of God.”[2]
4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a person be born when they’re old? They can’t enter their mother’s womb a second time and be born, can they?”
5 Jesus answered, “Amen, amen, I tell you — unless a person is born of water and spirit, they cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the spirit is spirit. 7 Don’t be surprised that I told you, ‘You must be born from above.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it wants, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it’s going. That’s how it is with everyone born of the spirit.”[3]
9 Nicodemus answered him, “How can these things happen?”
10 Jesus answered him, “You’re the teacher of Israel, and you don’t understand this? 11 Amen, amen, I tell you — we speak about what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but you won’t accept our testimony. 12 If I’ve told you about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has gone up into heaven except the one who came down from heaven — the Son of Man. 14 And just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,[4] 15 so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
16 For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life. 17 God didn’t send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but so the world could be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned. But whoever doesn’t believe is condemned already, because they haven’t believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness more than the light, because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does wicked things hates the light and won’t come to the light, so their deeds won’t be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”
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22 After this, Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside. He stayed there with them and was baptizing. 23 John was also baptizing, at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water there. People kept coming and being baptized —[5] 24 John hadn’t been thrown into prison yet.
25 Now a dispute broke out between John’s disciples and a Jewish man about purification. 26 They came to John and said, “Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan — the one you testified about — look, he’s baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”
27 John answered, “A person can’t receive a single thing unless it’s been given to them from heaven. 28 You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Anointed One, but I have been sent ahead of him.’ 29 The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom stands by and listens for him, and he’s filled with joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine is now complete. 30 He must become greater, and I must become less.”
31 The one who comes from above is above all. The one who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. 32 He testifies to what he has seen and heard, yet no one accepts his testimony. 33 Whoever does accept it has certified that God is true. 34 The one God sent speaks God’s words, for God gives the spirit without measure. 35 The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. But whoever rejects the Son won’t see life — God’s anger remains on them.
Notes
Note 1. The Greek word here is archōn, “ruler.” Nicodemus was a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish council that interpreted and enforced religious law under the limits Rome allowed. ↩
Note 2. The Greek word anōthen means both “from above” and “again, anew.” The exchange turns on a pun that can’t quite survive translation, which is why English versions have to pick one sense and lose the other. ↩
Note 3. The same Greek word, pneuma, means both “wind” and “spirit” (as does the Hebrew ruach). ↩
Note 4. The reference is to Numbers 21, where God sends venomous snakes among the Israelites, then tells Moses to mount a bronze serpent on a pole; anyone bitten who looked at it lived. The chosen verb, “lifted up,” does double duty in John — it points both to being raised on a pole and to being raised up in death. ↩
Note 5. The exact site is uncertain, but the name fits: Aenon derives from a word for springs, and the text notes there was “plenty of water there” — the practical reason for baptizing there. One long-standing proposal places it near a village still called Salim and springs called ‘Ainun, in the region north of the central hill country. ↩