Further to Derrick Olliff’s paper “The Eschatology of Being
“Born Again””
“Descent from Father
Abraham and membership of one of the twelve tribes of Israel will no
longer count for membership in the people of God…. Easily missed is the fact
that Jesus is actually addressing the nation of Israel in the person of this noted
individual. This point emerges where we translate the Greek literally:
verse 7 Marvel not
that I say unto thee,
‘You (plural) must be born from above’.
verse 11 ‘… you (plural) do not receive our
witness’.
In effect, Jesus is
addressing Israel
with an announcement that is at the same time bad news and good news. It is bad
news because it declares that Israel
is not the Kingdom
of God , but it is good
news because it points to the door into the Kingdom. That ‘door’ is through the
one who now speaks to Nicodemus, Jesus himself.
In turn this bears on
the meaning of the words, ‘born of water and the Spirit’ (verse 5). Most likely Jesus is referring to God’s
promise to gather together his scattered people into their true homeland and to
wash them with water and give them his Spirit
(Ezekiel 36:26-28). In other words, God promises to forgive those sins that caused them to be scattered and to give
them his inner strength to please him
from now on.” (p42)
Paul Barnett, John: The Shepherd King Reading The
Bible Today Series (Sydney, Aquila Press, 2005)
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