Church Fathers Commentary John 3

St. Augustine of Hippo: He had said above that when He was at Jerusalem, many believed in His name when they saw the miracles He performed. Nicodemus was one of this number, of whom we are told: There was a man of the Pharisees, Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

The Venerable Bede: His rank is given as "a ruler of the Jews," and then what he did: This man came to Jesus by night. He was hoping, by such a secret interview, to learn more of the mysteries of the faith, since the recent public miracles had given him a basic knowledge of them.

St. John Chrysostom: However, he was still held back by a weakness common among the Jews, and therefore he came in the night, being afraid to come in the day. The Evangelist speaks of such people elsewhere: Nevertheless, among the chief rulers also many believed on Him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Nicodemus was one of the number who believed but were not yet born again. Therefore, he came to Jesus by night. In contrast, those who are born of water and the Holy Spirit are addressed by the Apostle: You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.

Haymo of Auxerre: Or, it may well be said that he came in the night because he was enveloped in the darkness of ignorance and had not yet come to the light—that is, the belief that our Lord was truly God. In the language of Holy Scripture, night represents ignorance. And he said to Him, Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God. The Hebrew word "Rabbi" means "Master" in Latin. We see that he calls Him a Master, but not God; he does not hint at that. He believes Him to be sent from God but does not see that He is God.

St. Augustine of Hippo: The basis for his belief is clear from what immediately follows: For no one can do these miracles that You do, unless God is with him. Nicodemus, then, was one of the many who believed in His name when they saw the signs that He did.

St. John Chrysostom: However, he did not form any grand conception of Jesus from His miracles and still attributed to Him only a human character. He spoke of Him as a prophet sent to carry out a commission, as if He needed assistance to do His work, whereas the Father had begotten Him perfect, self-sufficient, and free from all deficiency.

Since it was Christ’s design for the present not so much to reveal His own dignity as to prove that He did nothing contrary to the Father, He is often humble in His words, while His actions always testify to His power. Therefore, on this occasion, He says nothing to Nicodemus expressly to magnify Himself. Instead, He imperceptibly corrects his low view of Him and teaches him that He was Himself all-sufficient and independent in His miraculous works. Hence, He answers, Verily, verily, I say to you, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

St. Augustine of Hippo: These, then, are the people to whom Jesus entrusts Himself—those who are born again, who do not come to Jesus by night as Nicodemus did. Such people immediately make a public profession.

St. John Chrysostom: He says, therefore, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. It is as if He said, "You are not yet born again—that is, of God, by a spiritual birth—and therefore your knowledge of Me is not spiritual, but carnal and human. But I say to you, that neither you nor anyone, unless he is born again of God, will be able to see the glory that is around Me, but will be outside the kingdom, for it is the birth of baptism that enlightens the mind."

Alternatively, the meaning is: unless you are born "from above" and have received the certainty of My doctrines, you are wandering from the way and are far from the kingdom of heaven. By these words, our Lord discloses His nature, showing that He is more than what He appears to be to the outward eye. The expression "from above," according to some, means from heaven; according to others, from the beginning.

If the Jews had heard this, they would have left Him in scorn. But Nicodemus shows the love of a disciple by staying to ask more questions.

St. John Chrysostom: Nicodemus, coming to Jesus as to a man, is startled to learn things greater than a man could utter, things too lofty for him. His mind is darkened, and he does not stand firm but reels like one on the verge of falling away from the faith.

Therefore, he objects to the doctrine as impossible in order to draw out a fuller explanation. Two things astonish him: such a birth and such a kingdom, neither of which had yet been heard of among the Jews. He first brings up the former difficulty, as it is the greatest marvel, asking: How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?

The Venerable Bede: The question, put this way, sounds as if a boy could enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born. But we must remember, Nicodemus was an old man and took his example from himself, as if he said: I am an old man and seek my salvation; how can I enter again into my mother’s womb and be born?

St. John Chrysostom: You call Him Rabbi and say that He comes from God, yet you do not accept His sayings, but use a word with your master that introduces endless confusion. For "how" is the question of a man who lacks strong belief, and many who have asked this have fallen from the faith—some asking how God became incarnate, others how He was born. Nicodemus asks from anxiety. But observe how ridiculously a man talks when he trusts spiritual things to his own reasoning.

St. Augustine of Hippo: It is the Spirit who speaks, whereas Nicodemus understands carnally. He knew of no birth except the one from Adam and Eve; he knew nothing of the one from God and the Church. But do not understand the birth of the Spirit as Nicodemus understood the birth of the flesh, for just as entrance into the womb cannot be repeated, neither can baptism.

St. John Chrysostom: While Nicodemus stumbles, dwelling on our earthly birth, Christ reveals the manner of our spiritual birth more clearly. Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say to you, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

St. Augustine of Hippo: It is as if He said: You understand me to speak of a carnal birth, but a man must be born of water and of the Spirit if he is to enter into the kingdom of God. If a man must be born from his mother's womb to obtain the temporal inheritance of his human father, he must be born from the womb of the Church to obtain the eternal inheritance of his heavenly Father. And since a person consists of two parts, body and soul, the mode of this latter birth is also twofold: water, the visible part, cleanses the body; the Spirit, by His invisible cooperation, changes the invisible soul.

St. John Chrysostom: If anyone asks how a man is born of water, I ask in return, how was Adam born from the ground? For just as in the beginning, though the element of earth was the subject matter, the man was the work of the Fashioner, so now too, though the element of water is the subject matter, the whole work is done by the Spirit of grace. Then, He gave Paradise as a place to dwell; now, He has opened heaven to us.

But what need is there of water for those who receive the Holy Spirit? Water carries out the divine symbols of burial, mortification, resurrection, and life. For by the immersion of our heads in the water, the old man disappears and is buried, as it were, in a tomb, from which he ascends as a new man. Thus you should learn that the power of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit fills all things. For this reason, Christ also lay three days in the grave before His resurrection.

What the womb is to the offspring, water is to the believer; he is fashioned and formed in the water. But that which is fashioned in the womb needs time, whereas in the water, all is done in an instant. For the nature of the body is such that it requires time for its completion, but spiritual creations are perfect from the beginning. From the time our Lord ascended from the Jordan, water no longer produces reptiles (that is, living souls), but rather souls that are rational and endowed with the Spirit.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Because He does not say, Except a man be born again of water and of the Spirit, he shall not have salvation, or eternal life, but rather, he shall not enter into the kingdom of God, some infer that children are to be baptized to be with Christ in the kingdom of God (where they would not be if they were not baptized). They believe, however, that such children will obtain salvation and eternal life even if they die without baptism, since they are not bound by any chain of sin. But why is a person born again, except to be changed from their old state into a new one? And why does the image of God not enter the kingdom of God, if not because of sin?

Haymo of Auxerre: But since Nicodemus was unable to grasp such great and deep mysteries, our Lord helps him with the analogy of our carnal birth, saying, That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. For just as flesh generates flesh, so also does spirit generate spirit.

St. John Chrysostom: Therefore, do not look for any material production or think that the Spirit generates flesh, for even the Lord’s flesh is generated not by the Spirit only, but also by the flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spiritual. The birth spoken of here takes place not according to our substance, but according to honor and grace. But the birth of the Son of God is different; otherwise, how would He have been more than all who are born again? And He would also be proved inferior to the Spirit, inasmuch as His birth would be by the grace of the Spirit. How does this differ from the Jewish doctrine?

But next, mark the role of the Holy Spirit in the divine work. For whereas previously some are said to be born of God, here we find the Spirit generates them. When Nicodemus's wonder was roused again by the statement that he who is born of the Spirit is spirit, Christ meets him again with an example from nature: Marvel not that I said to you, You must be born again.

The expression, Marvel not, shows that Nicodemus was surprised at His doctrine. For this example, He takes something not as coarse as other bodily things, but still distinct from an incorporeal nature: the wind. The wind blows where it lists, and you hear the sound thereof, but cannot tell whence it comes, and whither it goes: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. That is to say, if no one can restrain the wind from going where it wills, much less can the laws of nature—whether the condition of our natural birth or any other—restrain the action of the Spirit.

That He is speaking of the wind here is plain from His saying, You hear the sound thereof—that is, its noise when it strikes objects. He would not describe the action of the Spirit in this way when talking to an unbeliever and an ignorant person. He says, Blows where it lists, not meaning any power of choice in the wind, but only its natural, uncontrolled movements. But you cannot tell whence it comes or whither it goes. That is, if you cannot explain the action of this wind, which you can both feel and hear, why scrutinize the operation of the Divine Spirit? He adds, So is every one that is born of the Spirit.

St. Augustine of Hippo: But who among us does not see, for example, that the south wind blows from south to north, another wind from the east, and another from the west? How then can we say we do not know where the wind comes from and where it goes?

The Venerable Bede: It is the Holy Spirit, therefore, who blows where He wishes. It is in His own power to choose whose heart to visit with His enlightening grace. And you hear the sound thereof: this happens when someone filled with the Holy Spirit is present with you and speaks to you.

St. Augustine of Hippo: The Psalm sounds, the Gospel sounds, the Divine Word sounds; it is the sound of the Spirit. This means that the Holy Spirit is invisibly present in the Word and Sacrament to accomplish our birth.

Alcuin of York: Therefore, You know not whence it comes, or whither it goes; for although the Spirit may possess a person in your presence at a particular time, it cannot be seen how He entered him or how He left, because He is invisible.

Haymo of Auxerre: Or, You cannot tell whence it comes—that is, you do not know how He brings believers to the faith; or whither it goes—that is, how He directs the faithful to their hope. And so is every one that is born of the Spirit. It is as if He said: The Holy Spirit is an invisible Spirit, and in the same way, everyone who is born of the Spirit is born invisibly.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Or it means this: If you are born of the Spirit, you will be such that a person who is not yet born of the Spirit will not know where you come from or where you go. For it follows, So is every one that is born of the Spirit.

Theophylact of Ohrid: This completely refutes Macedonius, the opponent of the Spirit, who asserted that the Holy Spirit was a servant. The Holy Spirit, we find, works by His own power, where He wills and what He wills.

Haymo of Auxerre: Nicodemus cannot grasp the mysteries of the Divine Majesty that our Lord reveals, and therefore asks how this can be. He is not denying the fact or intending any criticism, but is simply wishing to be informed: Nicodemus answered and said to Him, How can these things be?

St. John Chrysostom: Since he still remains a Jew and, after such clear evidence, persists in a lowly and worldly way of thinking, Christ from now on addresses him with greater severity: Jesus answered and said to him, Are you a master in Israel, and know not these things?

St. Augustine of Hippo: What are we to think? That our Lord wished to insult this master in Israel? He wished him to be born of the Spirit, and no one is born of the Spirit unless he is made humble. For it is this very humility that makes us to be born of the Spirit.

He, however, was puffed up with his prominence as a master and thought himself important because he was a teacher of the Jews. Our Lord, therefore, casts down his pride so that he might be born of the Spirit.

St. John Chrysostom: Nevertheless, He does not charge the man with wickedness, but only with a lack of wisdom and enlightenment. But someone will say, "What connection does this birth, of which Christ speaks, have with Jewish doctrines?" This much: the first man who was made, the woman who was made from his rib, the barren women who gave birth, and the miracles worked by means of water—I mean Elijah’s bringing up the iron from the river, the passage of the Red Sea, and Naaman the Syrian’s purification in the Jordan—were all types and figures of the spiritual birth and of the purification that was to take place through it.

Many passages in the Prophets also have a hidden reference to this birth, such as that in the Psalms, Making you young and lusty as an eagle, and, Blessed is he whose unrighteousness is forgiven. Isaac, too, was a type of this birth. Referring to these passages, our Lord says, Are you a master in Israel, and know not these things?

A second time, however, He condescends to his weakness and uses a common argument to make what He has said believable: Verily, verily, I say to you, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen, and you receive not our testimony. We consider sight the most certain of all the senses, so that when we say we saw something with our own eyes, we seem to compel people to believe us.

In the same way, Christ, speaking in human terms, does not actually say that He has seen with the bodily eye the mysteries He reveals; rather, it is clear that He means it as the most certain, absolute knowledge. This then, namely, That we do know, He asserts of Himself alone.

Haymo of Auxerre: Why, it is asked, does He speak in the plural, We speak that we do know? Because the speaker is the Only-Begotten Son of God, He wishes to show that the Father is in the Son, the Son is in the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from both, indivisibly.

Alcuin of York: Or, the plural may have this meaning: I and those who are born again of the Spirit alone understand what we speak. Having seen the Father in secret, we testify this openly to the world; and you, who are worldly and proud, do not receive our testimony.

Theophylact of Ohrid: This is not said of Nicodemus, but of the Jewish people, who persisted in unbelief to the very end.

St. John Chrysostom: These are words of gentleness, not of anger. They are a lesson to us that when we argue and cannot persuade, we should prove the soundness of our views not with harsh and angry words, but by the absence of anger and shouting (for shouting is the substance of anger).

When entering upon high doctrines, Jesus always checks Himself out of compassion for His hearer's weakness. He does not dwell continuously on the most important truths but turns to more humble ones. From this it follows: If I have told you earthly things, and you believe not, how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things?

St. Augustine of Hippo: That is: If you do not believe that I can raise up the temple that you have thrown down, how can you believe that people can be regenerated by the Holy Spirit?

St. John Chrysostom: Or, to put it another way: Do not be surprised at His calling baptism "earthly." It is performed on earth, and it is called earthly when compared with that stupendous birth which is from the substance of the Father, since this birth on earth is one of mere grace. And He has rightly said not, You do not understand, but, You do not believe.

For when the understanding cannot grasp certain truths, we attribute it to a natural deficiency or ignorance. But where something that only faith can receive is not accepted, the fault is not a deficiency, but unbelief. These truths, however, were revealed so that future generations might believe and benefit from them, even though the people of that age did not.

St. Augustine of Hippo: After noting this lack of knowledge in a person who, on the strength of his teaching position, set himself above others, and after condemning the unbelief of such men, our Lord says that if people like this do not believe, others will. He says, No one has ascended into heaven but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man who is in heaven.

This can be understood to mean that the spiritual birth will be such that people, from being earthly, shall become heavenly. This will not be possible unless they are made members of Me, so that the one who ascends becomes one with Him who descended. Our Lord considers His body—that is, His Church—to be Himself.

St. Gregory the Great: Inasmuch as we are made one with Him, He returns alone in us to the place from which He came alone in Himself. And He who is always in heaven, daily ascends to heaven.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Although He was made the Son of Man on earth, He has declared that His Divinity—with which He descended to earth while remaining in heaven—is not inconsistent with the title "Son of Man," just as He has deemed His flesh worthy of the name "Son of God." For through the unity of His person, by which both substances are one Christ, He walked on earth as the Son of God and remained in heaven as the Son of Man.

Belief in the greater reality involves belief in the lesser one. If the divine substance, which is so much more distant from us, could for our sake take up human substance to unite them in one person, how much more easily can we believe that the saints, united with the man Christ, become one Christ with Him?

Therefore, while it is true of all that they ascend by grace, it is at the same time true that He alone ascends to heaven who came down from heaven.

St. John Chrysostom: Alternatively, since Nicodemus had said, We know that You are a teacher sent from God, our Lord replied, And no man has ascended... so that He would not appear to be merely a teacher like one of the prophets.

Theophylact of Ohrid: But when you hear that the Son of Man came down from heaven, do not think that His flesh came down from heaven. For this is the doctrine of those heretics who held that Christ took His body from heaven and only passed through the Virgin.

St. John Chrysostom: By the title "Son of Man" here, He does not mean His flesh alone, but Himself as a whole, using the lesser part of His nature to refer to the whole. It is not uncommon for Him to name Himself entirely by His humanity or entirely by His divinity.

The Venerable Bede: If a man intentionally descends naked into a valley, and there equips himself with clothes and armor before ascending the mountain again, the one who ascended can be said to be the same person who descended.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Alternatively, His descending from heaven refers to the source of His origin, as He was conceived by the Spirit. Mary did not give His body its origin, though the natural qualities of her own body contributed to its birth and growth.

His being the Son of Man comes from the birth of the flesh that was conceived in the Virgin. His being in heaven, however, comes from the power of His everlasting nature, which did not confine the infinite power of the Word of God within the sphere of a finite body.

Although our Lord remained in the form of a servant, seemingly distant from the entire realm of heaven and the world, yet as Lord of heaven and the world, He was not absent from them. Thus, He came down from heaven as the Son of Man, and He was in heaven because the Word, who was made flesh, had not ceased to be the Word.

St. Augustine of Hippo: But you wonder that He was simultaneously here and in heaven. Yet He has given such power even to His disciples. Listen to Paul: Our citizenship is in heaven. If the man Paul walked on earth while his citizenship was in heaven, is not the God of heaven and earth able to be in both heaven and earth at the same time?

St. John Chrysostom: Even this concept, which seems so lofty, is still unworthy of His immensity. For He is not in heaven only, but everywhere, and He fills all things. But for now, He accommodates Himself to the weakness of His hearer, so that He might gradually convert him.

St. John Chrysostom: After mentioning the gift of baptism, He moves on to its source, that is, the cross: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so also must the Son of man be lifted up.

The Venerable Bede: He introduces this teacher of the Mosaic law to its spiritual meaning, using a passage from Old Testament history that was a figure of His Passion and of humanity’s salvation.

St. Augustine of Hippo: When many were dying in the wilderness from the bites of serpents, Moses, by the Lord's command, lifted up a bronze serpent, and those who looked at it were immediately healed.

The lifting up of the serpent represents the death of Christ, where the cause is used to signify the effect. The serpent was the cause of death because he persuaded humanity into the sin for which it deserved death.

Our Lord, however, did not transfer sin—that is, the serpent's venom—to His flesh, but rather He transferred death. This was so that in the likeness of sinful flesh, there could be punishment without sin, through which our sinful flesh could then be delivered from both punishment and sin.

Theophylact of Ohrid: Notice, then, how fitting the figure is. The bronze serpent had the appearance of a serpent but not its venom; in the same way, Christ came in the likeness of sinful flesh, yet was free from sin.

By Christ’s being “lifted up,” understand that He was suspended on high. Through this suspension, He sanctified the air, just as He had sanctified the earth by walking upon it. In this, the glory of Christ is also typified, for the height of the cross became His glory. In submitting to be judged, He judged the prince of this world.

Adam died justly because he sinned; our Lord died unjustly because He committed no sin. Thus, He overcame the one who delivered Him to death and, in doing so, delivered Adam from death.

The devil found himself defeated in this: on the cross, he could not torment our Lord into hating His murderers but instead only caused Him to love and pray for them more. In this way, the cross of Christ became His exaltation and glory.

St. John Chrysostom: For this reason, He does not say the Son of Man must be “suspended,” but “lifted up,” which is a more honorable term, yet one that relates to the figure. He uses this figure to show that the old covenant is related to the new, to show His hearers that He suffered voluntarily, and to show that His death resulted in life.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Just as in the past, whoever looked at the lifted-up serpent was healed of its venom and saved from death, so now, whoever is conformed to the likeness of Christ’s death through faith and the grace of baptism is delivered from sin by justification and from death by the resurrection. As He Himself said: That whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. What need, then, would there be for a child to be conformed to the death of Christ by baptism, if the child were not already tainted by the serpent's poisonous bite?

St. John Chrysostom: Notice, He alludes to the Passion obscurely out of consideration for His hearer, but He plainly unfolds the fruit of the Passion: namely, that those who believe in the Crucified One should not perish. And if those who believe in the Crucified One live, how much more shall the Crucified One Himself live.

St. Augustine of Hippo: But there is this difference between the figure and the reality: the figure brought recovery from temporal death, while the reality brings recovery from eternal death.