John 3:6
New International Version
Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.

New Living Translation
Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.

English Standard Version
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Berean Standard Bible
Flesh is born of flesh, but spirit is born of the Spirit.

Berean Literal Bible
That having been born of the flesh is flesh, and that having been born of the Spirit is spirit.

King James Bible
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

New King James Version
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

New American Standard Bible
That which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit.

NASB 1995
“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

NASB 1977
“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Legacy Standard Bible
That which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit.

Amplified Bible
That which is born of the flesh is flesh [the physical is merely physical], and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Christian Standard Bible
Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit.

American Standard Version
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
That which is born from flesh is flesh, and that which is born from The Spirit is spirit.

Contemporary English Version
Humans give life to their children. Yet only God's Spirit can change you into a child of God.

Douay-Rheims Bible
That which is born of the flesh, is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit.

English Revised Version
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Flesh and blood give birth to flesh and blood, but the Spirit gives birth to things that are spiritual.

Good News Translation
A person is born physically of human parents, but is born spiritually of the Spirit.

International Standard Version
What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Literal Standard Version
that which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit.

Majority Standard Bible
Flesh is born of flesh, but spirit is born of the Spirit.

New American Bible
What is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of spirit is spirit.

NET Bible
What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.

New Revised Standard Version
What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.

New Heart English Bible
That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Webster's Bible Translation
That which is born of the flesh, is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit.

Weymouth New Testament
Whatever has been born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever has been born of the Spirit is spirit.

World English Bible
That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Young's Literal Translation
that which hath been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which hath been born of the Spirit is spirit.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Jesus and Nicodemus
5Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6Flesh is born of flesh, but spirit is born of the Spirit. 7Do not be amazed that I said, ‘You must be born again.’…

Cross References
John 1:13
children born not of blood, nor of the desire or will of man, but born of God.

John 3:7
Do not be amazed that I said, 'You must be born again.'

Romans 7:18
I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh; for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.

1 Corinthians 15:50
Now I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.


Treasury of Scripture

That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

born of the flesh.

Genesis 5:3
And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:

Genesis 6:5,12
And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually…

Job 14:4
Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.

that.

Ezekiel 11:19,20
And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: …

Ezekiel 36:26,27
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh…

Romans 8:5,9
For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit…

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Birth Born Flesh Gives Spirit Whatever
John 3
1. Jesus teaches Nicodemus the necessity of being born again,
14. of faith in his death,
16. the great love of God toward the world,
18. and the condemnation for unbelief.
22. Jesus baptizes in Judea.
23. The baptism, witness, and doctrine of John concerning Jesus.














(6) That which is born of the flesh is flesh.--The first step is to remind him of the law of likeness in natural generation. "Flesh," as distinct from "spirit," is human nature in so far as it is common with animal nature, consisting of the bodily frame and its animal life, feelings, and passions. "Flesh," as opposed to "spirit," is this nature as not under the guidance of the human spirit, which is itself the shrine of the Divine Spirit, and therefore it is sinful. (Comp. Galatians 5:16 et seq.; Galatians 6:8.) It is this nature in its material constitution, and subject to sin, which is transmitted from father to son. The physical life itself is dependent upon birth. That which is born of the flesh is flesh.

There is an analogous law of spiritual generation. Spirit as opposed to flesh is the differentia of man as distinct from all other creatures. It is the image of God in him, the seat of the capacity for the communion with God, which is the true principle of life. In the natural man this is crushed and dormant; in the spiritual man it has been quickened by the influence of the Holy Ghost. This is a new life in him, and the spiritual life, like the physical, is dependent upon birth. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

(6) The sense suggested for the last clause, "In this manner is every one born who is of the Spirit," removes the necessity of finding something with which the work of the Spirit may be compared, and it is in this necessity that the received versions of the first clause really find their root.

These reasons are, it is thought, not an insufficient basis for the interpretation here adopted. It is adopted not without the knowledge that a consensus of authorities may be pleaded against it. For its details it may be that no authority can be pleaded, but the rendering of ?????? here by "spirit" is not without the support of width of learning and depth of power, critical acumen and spiritual insight, for it rests on the names of Origen and Augustine, of Albrecht Bengel and Frederick Maurice.

Verse 6. - That which hath been born of the flesh, is flesh. Σάρξ is not the physical as opposed to the spiritual or immaterial. nor is σάρξ necessarily sinful, as we see from John 1:14, but as it often appears in John's writing and Paul's, σάρξ is the constituent element of humanity as apart from grace - humanity (body, intellect, heart, conscience, soul, spirit) viewed on its own side and merits and capacity, without the Divine life, or the Divine supernatural inbreathing. The being born of the flesh is the being born into this world, with all the privations and depravations, evil tendencies and passions of a fallen humanity. Birth into the theocracy, birth into national or ecclesiastical privilege, birth that has no higher quality than flesh, no better germ or graft upon it. simply produces flesh, humanity over again. When the Logos "became flesh," something more than and different from ordinary traduction of humanity took place. Destitute of any higher birth than the birth of flesh, man is fleshly, psychical, earthly, σαρκικός ψυχικός χοι'κός (Romans 7:14-25), and, more than that, positively opposed to the will and grace of God, lashed with passions, defiled with debasing ideas, in enmity against God. Hence the birth "from the Spirit" is entirely antithetic to the birth from the flesh. That which hath been born of the Spirit, is spirit. There is a birth which supervenes on the flesh-be-gotten man, and it is supernaturally wrought by the Spirit of God. As in the first instance, at man's creation, God breathed into man the breath of life, and by that operation man became a living soul; so now the new birth of man is wrought in him by the Spirit, and there is a new life, a new mode of being, a new bias and predomimating impulse. "A spiritual mind which is life and peace" has taken the place of the old carnal mind. He is "spiritual," no longer "psychical," or "carnal," but able to discern the things that are freely given to him. The eye of the spirit is opened, unsealed, the τὰ τοῦ πνεύματος are revealed to him (1 Corinthians 2:12-16; 1 Corinthians 3:1-5). The reference to "birth of water" is not repeated, because the birth from water is relatively unimportant, and of no value apart from the Spirit-change of which it may be a picture, or even a synonym. More than that, the Spirit-birth, the Divine operation, is the efficient cause of that which, under the form of a human experience, is called μετάνοια. The human metanoia, rather than the new birth, is the great burden of our Lord's public address, as recorded in the synoptic Gospels. In both representations the same fact, the same condition and state of the human consciousness, is referred to. In "repentance," however, and in the moral characters which are the several preliminaries to the beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount, a change is declared necessary for the constitution and inauguration of the kingdom of heaven. This change is there viewed from the standpoint of human experience, and urged in the form of a direct appeal to conscience. In this discourse to Nicodcmus the same change is exhibited on its Divine side, and as one produced by the Spirit of God. In the Sermon on the Mount "meekness," "poverty of spirit," "mourning," "hunger after righteousness," "purity of heart," the spirit of forgiveness and long suffering, are the moral conditions of those minds and hearts which would become the city of God and the light of the world (Matthew 5:1-12). On this occasion, when addressing the learned rabbi, Christ sums all up in the demand for a birth from the Spirit - a new and spiritual recommencement of life from the Spirit of God. The clause found in the Vetus Itala and the Syriac, quia Deus spiritus est, et de Deo natus est, is a gloss sustained by no Greek manuscript authority. Thorns here quotes two interesting passages from Philo, 1:533, 599, where the νοῦς is spoken of as given to man from above, and where the supremacy of the spiritual over the fleshly is made the only guarantee of admission into the world of spirit. But Philo obviously meant the intellectual rather than the moral element in human nature, and prized the ascetic process rather than the supernatural regeneration.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
Flesh
σάρξ (sarx)
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular
Strong's 4561: Flesh, body, human nature, materiality; kindred.

is
ἐστιν (estin)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 1510: I am, exist. The first person singular present indicative; a prolonged form of a primary and defective verb; I exist.

born
γεγεννημένον (gegennēmenon)
Verb - Perfect Participle Middle or Passive - Nominative Neuter Singular
Strong's 1080: From a variation of genos; to procreate; figuratively, to regenerate.

of
ἐκ (ek)
Preposition
Strong's 1537: From out, out from among, from, suggesting from the interior outwards. A primary preposition denoting origin, from, out.

flesh,
σαρκὸς (sarkos)
Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular
Strong's 4561: Flesh, body, human nature, materiality; kindred.

[but]
καὶ (kai)
Conjunction
Strong's 2532: And, even, also, namely.

spirit
πνεῦμά (pneuma)
Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular
Strong's 4151: Wind, breath, spirit.

is
ἐστιν (estin)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 1510: I am, exist. The first person singular present indicative; a prolonged form of a primary and defective verb; I exist.

born
γεγεννημένον (gegennēmenon)
Verb - Perfect Participle Middle or Passive - Nominative Neuter Singular
Strong's 1080: From a variation of genos; to procreate; figuratively, to regenerate.

of
ἐκ (ek)
Preposition
Strong's 1537: From out, out from among, from, suggesting from the interior outwards. A primary preposition denoting origin, from, out.

the
τοῦ (tou)
Article - Genitive Neuter Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

Spirit.
Πνεύματος (Pneumatos)
Noun - Genitive Neuter Singular
Strong's 4151: Wind, breath, spirit.


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