Mazmur 51:10

51:10 Create for me a pure heart, O God! ¹ 

Renew a resolute spirit within me! ² 

Yehezkiel 11:19

11:19 I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within them; ³  I will remove the hearts of stone from their bodies ⁴  and I will give them tender hearts, ⁵ 

Yehezkiel 18:31

18:31 Throw away all your sins you have committed and fashion yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! ⁶  Why should you die, O house of Israel?

Yehezkiel 36:26

36:26 I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone ⁷  from your body and give you a heart of flesh. ⁸ 

Matius 12:33

Trees and Their Fruit

12:33 “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad ⁹  and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is known by its fruit.

Yohanes 3:3

3:3 Jesus replied, ¹⁰  “I tell you the solemn truth, ¹¹  unless a person is born from above, ¹²  he cannot see the kingdom of God.” ¹³ 

Yohanes 3:5

3:5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the solemn truth, ¹⁴  unless a person is born of water and spirit, ¹⁵  he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Galatia 6:15

6:15 For ¹⁶  neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for ¹⁷  anything; the only thing that matters is a new creation! ¹⁸ 

Efesus 2:10

2:10 For we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we may do them. ¹⁹ 

[51:10]  ¹ sn The heart is viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s motives and moral character.

[51:10]  ² tn Heb “and a reliable spirit renew in my inner being.”

[11:19]  ³ tc The MT reads “you”; many Hebrew mss along with the LXX and other ancient versions read “within them.”

[11:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “their flesh.”

[11:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “heart of flesh.”

[18:31]  ⁶ sn In Ezek 11:19, 36:26 the new heart and new spirit are promised as future blessings.

[36:26]  ⁷ sn That is, a heart which symbolizes a will that is stubborn and unresponsive (see 1 Sam 25:37). In Rabbinic literature a “stone” was associated with an evil inclination (b. Sukkah 52a).

[36:26]  ⁸ sn That is, a heart which symbolizes a will that is responsive and obedient to God.

[12:33]  ⁹ tn Grk “rotten.” The word σαπρός, modifying both “tree” and “fruit,” can also mean “diseased” (L&N 65.28).

[3:3]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “answered and said to him.”

[3:3]  ¹¹ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[3:3]  ¹² tn The word ἄνωθεν (anwqen) has a double meaning, either “again” (in which case it is synonymous with παλίν [palin]) or “from above” (BDAG 92 s.v. ἄνωθεν). This is a favorite technique of the author of the Fourth Gospel, and it is lost in almost all translations at this point. John uses the word 5 times, in 3:3, 7; 3:31; 19:11 and 23. In the latter 3 cases the context makes clear that it means “from above.” Here (3:3, 7) it could mean either, but the primary meaning intended by Jesus is “from above.” Nicodemus apparently understood it the other way, which explains his reply, “How can a man be born when he is old? He can’t enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born, can he?” The author uses the technique of the “misunderstood question” often to bring out a particularly important point: Jesus says something which is misunderstood by the disciples or (as here) someone else, which then gives Jesus the opportunity to explain more fully and in more detail what he really meant.

[3:3]  sn Or born again. The Greek word ἄνωθεν (anwqen) can mean both “again” and “from above,” giving rise to Nicodemus’ misunderstanding about a second physical birth (v. 4).

[3:3]  ¹³ sn What does Jesus’ statement about not being able to see the kingdom of God mean within the framework of John’s Gospel? John uses the word kingdom (βασιλεία, basileia) only 5 times (3:3, 5; 18:36 [3x]). Only here is it qualified with the phrase of God. The fact that John does not stress the concept of the kingdom of God does not mean it is absent from his theology, however. Remember the messianic implications found in John 2, both the wedding and miracle at Cana and the cleansing of the temple. For Nicodemus, the term must surely have brought to mind the messianic kingdom which Messiah was supposed to bring. But Nicodemus had missed precisely this point about who Jesus was. It was the Messiah himself with whom Nicodemus was speaking. Whatever Nicodemus understood, it is clear that the point is this: He misunderstood Jesus’ words. He over-literalized them, and thought Jesus was talking about repeated physical birth, when he was in fact referring to new spiritual birth.

[3:5]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[3:5]  ¹⁵ tn Or “born of water and wind” (the same Greek word, πνεύματος [pneumatos], may be translated either “spirit/Spirit” or “wind”).

[3:5]  sn Jesus’ somewhat enigmatic statement points to the necessity of being born “from above,” because water and wind/spirit/Spirit come from above. Isaiah 44:3-5 and Ezek 37:9-10 are pertinent examples of water and wind as life-giving symbols of the Spirit of God in his work among people. Both occur in contexts that deal with the future restoration of Israel as a nation prior to the establishment of the messianic kingdom. It is therefore particularly appropriate that Jesus should introduce them in a conversation about entering the kingdom of God. Note that the Greek word πνεύματος is anarthrous (has no article) in v. 5. This does not mean that spirit in the verse should be read as a direct reference to the Holy Spirit, but that both water and wind are figures (based on passages in the OT, which Nicodemus, the teacher of Israel should have known) that represent the regenerating work of the Spirit in the lives of men and women.

[6:15]  ¹⁶ tc The phrase “in Christ Jesus” is found after “For” in some mss (א A C D F G 0278 1881 Ï lat bo), but lacking in Ì⁴⁶ B Ψ 33 1175 1505 1739* and several fathers. The longer reading probably represents a harmonization to Gal 5:6.

[6:15]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “is.”

[6:15]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “but a new creation”; the words “the only thing that matters” have been supplied to reflect the implied contrast with the previous clause (see also Gal 5:6).

[2:10]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “so that we might walk in them” (or “by them”).

[2:10]  sn So that we may do them. Before the devil began to control our walk in sin and among sinful people, God had already planned good works for us to do.