Begotten Again From Above...

...a Study of John 3.1-17

Despite the current insistent denial by American evangelicalism that John 3:1-17 is a “baptism text,” it is a matter of record that no known Christian writer during the first fourteen centuries of Christian history ever denied it! Significantly, the fourth chapter of the Gospel of John that immediately follows Jesus’ insistence to Nicodemus that no one can understand or enter the kingdom of God without being begotten “of water and spirit,” begins with the statement that “Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John.”
John 3:1 identifies Nicodemus as a man, a Pharisee and a ruler. In verse ten of this chapter Jesus recognizes him as “a teacher of Israel.” He may have been among those who had previously sent a committee to inquire of John the Baptist whether or not he was the Christ (John 1:15-28). Jesus didn’t answer Nicodemus’ complementary greeting. Instead He addressed the unspoken question that brought him to Jesus by night for a private conversation; “Are you the Christ?”
The beginning of proselyte immersion is lost in antiquity, but it is certain that it was practiced before the beginning of the Christian era. Newly immersed proselytes were frequently referred to as “newly born children.” As a Pharisee, Nicodemus would have been familiar with the proselyte immersion required of any Gentile who wanted to become a Jew. Three acts constituted the entire conversion process. 1) Circumcision, by which the candidate was cut off from his pagan roots, 2) Immersion, by which he was purified from the uncleanness associated with all Gentiles, performed seven days following his circumcision and 3) the offering of a sacrifice in the temple. This final act recognized the proselyte’s membership in the covenant community.
The purpose of this conversion procedure was to establish the Gentile as a part of the people of God, the covenant community established and perpetuated by faithfulness to the covenant made by God with Abraham. This covenant was the foundation of the Law given four hundred years later through Moses (cf. Galatians, chapter three). The converted Gentile, now recognized as one of God’s own people, was said to be dead to his non-Jewish past and raised to a new life; to have been begotten again.
Genneethee, translated “born” in the KJV,NIV, etc. is an ambivalent word. It literally means “begin.” When it speaks of the mother’s role in procreation, it is translated “born.” The same word applied to the father’s role is translated “begotten.” Since no one can claim, Biblically, that God is a mother, the only accurate translation of genneethee, in the third chapter of John, is begotten rather than born.
While it is a grave error to imply that either John’s baptism or Christian baptism had their roots in pre-Christian washings, it is likely that the earliest Christian believers, being familiar with these practices, had little difficulty understanding the terminology used by Jesus to introduce Christian immersion. It was not unusual for the New Testament writers to employ pre-Christian terms by pouring them full of Christian meaning. John’s use of the word logos to identify the pre-incarnate Christ is a significant case in point.
In Paul’s Pastoral Epistles, I and 2 Timothy and Titus, the apostle quotes from a series of early Christian hymns. He refers to each quotation referred to as “a faithful saying” (I Timothy 1:15; 3:1;4:9; II Timothy 2:11 and Titus 3:5-7). At least two of these (II Timothy 2:11 and Titus 3:5-7) are generally recognized as baptismal hymns. II Timothy 2:22 sings of the baptismal confession and Titus 3:5-7 celebrates baptism itself.
To appreciate the truth of which these Scripture verses sing, we must remind ourselves that, “for the Apostle and his contemporaries, Christian immersion cannot be reduced to a bare sign any more that the cross of Christ can be described as a mere symbol.” Christian immersion is accompanied by regeneration, which Jesus called being “born again/from above.” Anothen is rendered “again” in the KJV, the NIV and some other English translations. A notable exception is the more literal Rotherham’s Emphasized Bible, which has “from above.”
The Apostle Paul, in Romans 6:3-11, and the Apostle Peter, in I Peter 1:22-23, leave no room for doubt concerning the efficacy of Christian baptism as the point of entry into the eternal life that was bought for us on Calvary. Dietrich Bonheoffer, whose Christian faith was tried by fire in Hitler’s concentration camps, summed the matter up perfectly when he wrote, “Only he who believes is obedient and only he who is obedient believes.” It has been so from the beginning. Jesus, Himself said “He who believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned (Mark 16:16). The New Testament knows nothing of “faith only” salvation.
Whatever else may be said in regard to being born again/from above, it is not accomplished by manipulating prospective converts to generate an emotional experience and treats baptism as merely “an outward sign of an inward grace.”