Jesus and Nicodemus: John 3:1-21

February 11, 2011 by William Hamblin

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Jesus' Teaching or John's Commentary?
Another interesting question arises in chapter three. Which verses contain the words of Jesus, and which are editorial comments by John? The earliest Greek manuscripts of John, and the entire New Testament, do not contain verse divisions, punctuation marks, or even spaces between words. These manuscripts simply provide continuous lines of text. Later editors and scholars decided where to make chapter and verse breaks, and how to punctuate the text.

So the question facing us here is: where did John intend for the discourse of Jesus end? The discourse clearly begins in John 3:10: "Jesus answered him, saying . . . " Thereafter, there is no obvious break until 3:22. Some scholars think Jesus' discourse runs from 3:10-22. Others think it runs from 3:10-15, while still others think it is 3:10-12, with the rest of the passage being John's editorial commentary on the teachings of Jesus.

There are some subtle hints that may indicate a change in discourse. First, the speech of Jesus is in first person from verses 10-12, then switches to third person. Second, the verb tense in verse 13-14 is aorist, meaning the verbal action is already completed. Thus the verbs in these verses do not say that Jesus will ascend and be lifted up in the future, but describe Jesus as already having ascended to heaven, and already having been lifted up in crucifixion. It is true that John's Gospel often exhibits a type a transcendent timelessness, but verses 13 and 14 make more sense if John wrote them after Jesus had already been lifted up on the cross and ascended to heaven, rather than Jesus prophesying them before his crucifixion and ascension. What would Nicodemus have made of these statements from Jesus without a knowledge of the culmination of Jesus' life?

Wind or Spirit? (3:8)
John 3:8 is translated something like this in most modern translations: "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit" (ESV). The basic idea is that the Spirit of God is a force that cannot be seen or controlled, but can be felt and heard. This translation, however, doesn't reflect the ambiguity in the original. In Greek the word for wind and the word for spirit are precisely the same: pneuma. The original meaning of the text is better represented thus: "The pneuma blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the pneuma." The word pneuma in Greek simultaneously means "breath," "wind," and "spirit." Precisely the same ambiguity exists in both Hebrew and Aramaic (rûach).

Jesus is saying that the pneuma of God is like the pneuma of the wind; it is like moving air that you can feel and hear, but you cannot see. Thus, paradoxically, only when you have been born of this unseeable pneuma can you see the kingdom of God. When the pneuma of God enters you, it fills you and suffuses your whole body precisely as the pneuma of your breath. And just as your mortal breathing of pneuma/breath gives life to your body, so the pneuma/spirit of God gives life (Jn. 6:63). When you stop breathing the pneuma you die, and when you stop breathing the pneuma of God, you likewise die spiritually. (In John 19:30 Jesus "gave up his spirit/pneuma," meaning he stopped breathing.) Speaking requires that your pneuma/breath create the words that are conveyed unseen to the hearer (Jn. 3:34). Speaking requires pneuma, and those who have heard your words have received your pneuma/breath. Thus, receiving the words of Jesus is receiving the pneuma/breath of God—God's holy pneuma/spirit.In John 20:22, Jesus breathes on the disciples to give them the pneuma/spirit/breath. Only when we examine the concept of spirit/pneuma in its original context does the full, interlocking meaning of these types of passages become clear. True translation requires that we adapt our modern assumptions and presuppositions to correspond to those of the original culture, rather than trying to force the ancient text to conform to our modern world-view, thereby inevitably distorting it.

Ascension into Heaven (3:13)
In 3:13 Jesus (or John?) says: "No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man." What would a first-century Jew have made of such a statement? Deuteronomy 30:11-12 would certainly have come to mind, where it says that the commandments of God do not require someone to ascend to heaven to obtain them. But by the first century there was a large and important extra-biblical tradition of ascent to heaven in early Jewish and Christian writings—apocryphal, pseudepigraphal, and apocalyptic.

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2/11/2011 5:00:00 AM

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About William Hamblin

William James Hamblin is professor of Near Eastern History at Brigham Young University. You can follow and discuss "An Enigmatic Mirror" on Facebook.

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