Revisiting Nicodemus’s Question in John 3:9

Abstract

There are good reasons for questioning the overtly negative interpretations of John 3:9 that prevail in current scholarship. A helpful place to start is to ask what kind of question 3:9 is. There are three options: (i) a question of modality, asking in what way birth from above takes place; (ii) a rhetorical question, the purpose of which is to question that birth from above can take place; or (iii) a real question about the conditions under which a birth from above could take place. The present article claims that 3:9 is a real and legitimate question that is given a substantive answer by Jesus. Many of the negative claims made about Nicodemus based on 3:9 are either unwarranted or questionable. Nicodemus is not critiqued for asking the question in 3:9 or for not knowing its answer, but for thinking that he already knew who Jesus was and for not adequately realizing his own need to be born from above.