8. Spiritus ubi vult spirat: et vocen eius audis, sed nescis unde veniat, aut quo vadat: sic est omnis qui natus est ex spiritu.8. The Spirit breatheth where he will: and thou hearest his voice, but thou knowest not whence he cometh, and whither he goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

8. Christ goes on to show how a difficulty in knowing the way in which the regeneration takes place is no proof of its impossibility, nor a reason for incredulity regarding its possibility. The sense of this verse depends upon the meaning given to the first “spirit,” τὸ πνεῦμα. Some understand this of the Holy Ghost. The Holy [pg 064] Ghost acts in men according to His own good pleasure; “you hear His voice that cannot be mistaken—its power, its sweetness, the peace which it breathes, the light which it pours on you; but you cannot tell that He is approaching, or when He will come, or how He will work on your soul; in such manner is it that everyone is born of the Spirit who is so born” (Coleridge, Public Life of our Lord, vol. i., page 262). Others understand the first spirit here of the wind; and this is the more common opinion among commentators. In this view, by means of a simple and obvious illustration from nature, Christ shows Nicodemus that he must believe in the possibility of this second birth, even though he know not the manner in which it takes place. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and you know not whence it cometh or whither it goeth: so is it in regeneration; you are regenerated, though you cannot comprehend the process. That πνεῦμα sometimes means wind in Biblical Greek, is undeniable (see, e.g., Gen. vii. 1; Ps. civ. 4; Matt. xxiv. 31; Heb. i. 7), and the use of the word here in different senses is plain from the comparison (so is it, &c.), according to the patrons of this second opinion. Nor does the fact that it is preceded by the article here oblige us, according to these, to refer it to the Holy Ghost; for, just as in verse 5, without the article, it refers to the Holy Ghost, so here, with the article, it may not refer to Him.

9. Respondit Nicodemus, et dixit ei: Quomodo possunt haec fieri?9. Nicodemus answered, and said to him: How can these things be done?
10. Respondit Iesus, et dixit ei: Tu es magister in Israel, et haec ignoras?10. Jesus answered, and said to him: Art thou a master in Israel, and knowest not these things?

9, 10. Nicodemus again asks how these things can come to pass, and Jesus gently upbraids him for his ignorance. As one of the chief teachers of Israel ὁ διδάσκαλος[36] (see also [vii. 45-50]), one of the seventy-one members of the Sanhedrim, or supreme Council of the Jews, he should be familiar with the Sacred Scriptures, and ought to have read in them the promise of a spiritual regeneration. See Ezech. xxxvi. 25; Zach. xiii. 1.

11. Amen, amen, dico tibi, quia quod scimus loquimur, et quod vidimus testamur, et testimonium nostrum non accipitis.11. Amen, amen I say to thee, that we speak what we know, and we testify what we have seen, and you receive not our testimony.

11. Christ continues using the solemn form of asseveration. [pg 065] What we know. The plural is used not of Himself and the Holy Spirit, nor of Himself and the Prophets, nor of all born of the Spirit, nor of the Three Persons of the Trinity, but simply as a plural of majesty. What we have seen. Sight, says St. Chrys. on this verse, we consider the most certain of all the senses, so that when we say we saw such a thing with our eyes, we seem to compel men to believe us. In like manner, Christ, speaking after the manner of men, does not indeed mean that He has seen actually with the bodily eye the mysteries He reveals, but it is manifest that He means He has the most certain and absolute (and we may add, immediate: see above on [i. 18]) knowledge of them. In these words, then, Christ insists upon His authority to teach, and His claim to be believed.

12. Si terrena dixi vobis, et non creditis: quomodo, si dixero vobis coelestia, credetis?12. If I have spoken to you earthly things, and you believe not: how will you believe if I shall speak to you heavenly things?

12. If you will not believe Me when I teach you the comparatively elementary doctrine of Baptism, which regards the regeneration of man here on earth, how shall you believe if I go on to speak of truths more sublime, more removed from the realms of sense and human comprehension? The spiritual vision of Nicodemus was hardly able to bear the first ray of truth; how then was it to bear the full flood of the light of higher revelation?

13. Et nemo ascendit in coelum, nisi qui descendit de coelo, Filius hominis, qui est in coelo.13. And no man hath ascended into heaven, but he that descended from heaven, the son of man who is in heaven.

13. The meaning is: No one was in heaven except Him who has descended from heaven, and now speaks to you; namely, the Son of Man, who still remains in heaven. In this view, which is that of St. Thomas, Toletus, and Beelen, Christ speaks of Himself as having ascended into heaven only to accommodate His language to human ideas, which conceive of ascent to heaven as necessary, in order to our being there. The Son of Man, as Son of God, had, of course, been there from all eternity [pg 066] and needed not to ascend. Some think that Christ here begins to explain the “heavenly things” referred to in the preceding verse; but a more probable connection is the following:—He had said: how shall you believe heavenly things from Me since you question even the elementary truths which I tell you? And yet from Me alone you must learn such things, for no one else has been in heaven, so as to know and be able to teach you the mysteries of God.