3: 1-12
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Nicodemus, by night.
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4: 48
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The nobleman: “except ye see signs and wonders.”
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5: 1-16
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The man of Bethesda, healed and disloyal.
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6: 15
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The multitude seek to make Jesus king.
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6: 30,31
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A selfish demand for repeated miracles.
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7: 3
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The Lord’s brothers cynical, unbelieving.
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8: 59
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Convinced by argument, they attempt stoning.
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9: 34
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Convinced by blindness healed, they excommunicate.
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10: 1-18
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The thief, the robber, the hireling, the wolf.
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11: 47
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The Sanhedrin convinced and plotting.
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12: 10
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And against Lazarus also.
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13: 30
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Judas went out, and betrayed.
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13: 37
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Peter: “I will lay down my life” - and made
denials.
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19: 12,13
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Pilate weak and giving way.
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20: 25
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Thomas loyal (11: 16), but stubbornly disbelieving.
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21: 3
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Disciples go back to their fishing.
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1.
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A Man. John should surely have had here the more
impressive Greek word to indicate a man of distinction. But, as the Gk. de
also suggests, he wanted to make a clear link with 2: 25.
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Nicodemus. To a Jewish ear this essentially Greek name
would sound like “innocent blood”; cp. 7: 50-52 with Ps. 94:
21.
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2.
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Can do these miracles. The verb is often used with
reference to divine powers; cp. use of dunamis.
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Come from God; cp. 1.1c. No definite article here.
Nicodemus could not possibly have believed in the trinity. Accordingly, this
phrase implies a divine mission, but no descent from heaven.
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3.
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Answered. This word implies that some proposition had
been put to Jesus.
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Born Again. The verb is passive (and so also in v.
5,6). No man can bring himself to new birth. Dr. Thomas reads here: from
above (Eur. 3: 686) cp.1: 13; 1 Jn. 3: 9; 4: 7; 5: 1,4,18.
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5.
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Of water and the Spirit. An allusion, following on from
those in 1: 1-4, to Genesis 1: 1,2? The Lord certainly intended reference to
baptism: “Of all the ancients there is not one to be named that ever did
otherwise expound or allege this place than as implying external baptism”
(Hooker: Ecclesiastical Polity). John’s record here (and in ch.1) assumes
that the nature and meaning of baptism and also the Lord’s miracles (2:
23) are known to his readers from the synoptic gospels.
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6.
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Flesh... spirit. Gen. 6: 3 RVm; 1 Pet. 3: 18.
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Born of the Spirit. With this compare 1: 12,13. Apply
Ps. 139: 14-16 to the New Birth. “In thy book” (v.16) seems to
require this.
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7.
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Must. Literally: it is necessary.
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8.
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The wind bloweth. It is worth considering whether
perhaps, as Jesus talked with Nicodemus, there may have been a mighty wind,
“the voice of the Lord”, blowing round the house where they sat
— not an ordinary gale, but the Lord’s whirlwind: Job. 38: 1; Ex.
15: 10; Ps. 19; 18: 10; 2 Sam. 5: 24; 1 Kgs. 18: 45; 19: 11; 2 Kgs. 2: 1,11; ls.
30: 30; Jn. 1: 4; Ez. 1: 4; Acts. 2: 2 etc.
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Hearest the sound there of. The Greek suggests
reference to the voice of Jesus at that moment.
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11.
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That we have seen. This verb is commonly used of seeing
some divine ad or revelation.
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Ye received not. Here and in v. 12, plural.
Therefore reference to those who sent Nicodemus.
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12.
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Earthly things. Their corruption, their flesh
(“as grass”), the inevitable end of their temple.
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Heavenly things. The Lord’s message of
forgiveness of sins, redemption, and the coming kingdom (v. 3,5).
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