New English Translation
John 3:6
6What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
John 3:6 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
- New International Version (NIV)Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
- English Standard Version (ESV)That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
- New King James Version (NKJV)That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Context of John 3:6
4Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter his mother’s womb and be born a second time, can he?” 5Jesus answered, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must all be born from above.’ 8The wind blows wherever it will, and you hear the sound it makes, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Read all of John 3John 3:6 word by word
Τὸ γεγεννημένον ἐκ τῆς σαρκὸς σάρξ ἐστιν, καὶ τὸ γεγεννημένον ἐκ τοῦ πνεύματος πνεῦμά ἐστιν.Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for John 3:6
- Genesis 5:3When Adam had lived 130 years he fathered a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and he named him Seth.
- Genesis 6:5But the Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind had become great on the earth. Every inclination of the thoughts of their minds was only evil all the time.
- Job 14:4Who can make a clean thing come from an unclean? No one!
- Job 15:14What is man that he should be pure, or one born of woman, that he should be righteous?
- Job 25:4How then can a human being be righteous before God? How can one born of a woman be pure?
- Psalms 51:10Create for me a pure heart, O God! Renew a resolute spirit within me!
- Romans 7:5For when we were in the flesh, the sinful desires, aroused by the law, were active in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.
- Romans 8:1There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
- 1 Corinthians 15:47The first man is from the earth, made of dust; the second man is from heaven.
- 2 Corinthians 5:17So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away – look, what is new has come!
- Galatians 5:16But I say, live by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.
- Ephesians 2:3among whom all of us also formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest…
- Colossians 2:11In him you also were circumcised – not, however, with a circumcision performed by human hands, but by the removal of the fleshly body, that is, through the circumcision done by Christ.
- Ezekiel 11:19I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within them; I will remove the hearts of stone from their bodies and I will give them tender hearts,
- Ezekiel 36:26I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your body and give you a heart of flesh.
- Romans 8:5For those who live according to the flesh have their outlook shaped by the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their outlook shaped by the things of the Spirit.
Commentaries on John 3:6
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 6That which is born of the flesh is flesh - This is the answer to the objection made by Nicodemus in John 3:4. Can a man enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Our Lord here intimates that, were even this possible, it would not answer the end; for the plant will ever be of the nature of the seed that produces it - like will beget its like. The kingdom of God is spiritual and holy; and that which is born of the Spirit resembles the…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 6That which is born of the flesh - To show the necessity of this change, the Saviour directs the attention of Nicodemus to the natural condition of man. By “that which is born of the flesh” he evidently intends man as he is by nature, in the circumstances of his natural birth. Perhaps, also, he alludes to the question asked by Nicodemus, whether a man could be born when he was old? Jesus tells him that if this could be, it would not answer any valuable…Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 6-86-8. That which is born, &c.--A great universal proposition; "That which is begotten carries within itself the nature of that which begat it" [Olshausen]. flesh--Not the mere material body, but all that comes into the world by birth, the entire man; yet not humanity simply, but in its corrupted, depraved condition, in complete subjection to the law of the fall (Ro 8:1-9). So that though a man "could enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born,"…Read the comment
Topics related to John 3:6
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on John 3
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Catena Aurea
- Illustrated New Testament
- Burkitt’s Expository Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Family Bible Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- John Lightfoot Commentary
- Luther’s Commentary on Selected Bible Passages
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- The People’s New Testament
- Robertson’s Word Pictures
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- The Fourfold Gospel and Commentary on Acts
- Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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