John 3:9

THE MESSAGE

Nicodemus asked, "What do you mean by this? How does this happen?"

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
“How can these things be?” asked Nicodemus.

King James Version (1611)
Nicodemus answered, and said vnto him, How can these things be?

King James Version
Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?

English Standard Version
Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?"

New American Standard Bible
Nicodemus responded and said to Him, "How can these things be?"

New Century Version
Nicodemus asked, "How can this happen?"

Amplified Bible
Nicodemus said to Him, "How can these things be possible?"

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Nicodemus said to Him, "How can these things be?"

Legacy Standard Bible
Nicodemus answered and said to Him, "How can these things be?"

Berean Standard Bible
"How can this be?" Nicodemus asked.

Contemporary English Version
"How can this be?" Nicodemus asked.

Complete Jewish Bible
Nakdimon replied, "How can this happen?"

Darby Translation
Nicodemus answered and said to him, How can these things be?

Easy-to-Read Version
Nicodemus asked, "How is all this possible?"

Geneva Bible (1587)
Nicodemus answered, and said vnto him, Howe can these things be?

George Lamsa Translation
Nicodemus answered and said to him, How can these things be?

Good News Translation
"How can this be?" asked Nicodemus.

Lexham English Bible
Nicodemus answered and said to him, "How can these things be?"

Literal Translation
Nicodemus answered and said to Him, How are these things able to occur?

American Standard Version
Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?

Bible in Basic English
And Nicodemus said to him, How is it possible for these things to be?

Hebrew Names Version
Nakdimon answered him, "How can these things be?"

International Standard Version
Nicodemus said to him, "How can that be?"John 6:52,60;">[xr]

Etheridge Translation
Nikodimos answered and said to him, How can these things be?

Murdock Translation
Nicodemus answered, and said to him: How can these things be?

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Nicodemus aunswered, and sayde vnto hym: howe can these thynges be?

English Revised Version
Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?

World English Bible
Nicodemus answered him, "How can these things be?"

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
Nicodemus answered and said to him, How can these things be?

Weymouth's New Testament
"How is all this possible?" asked Nicodemus.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Nychodeme answeride, and seide to hym, Hou moun these thingis be don?

Update Bible Version
Nicodemus answered and said to him, How can these things be?

Webster's Bible Translation
Nicodemus answered and said to him, How can these things be?

New English Translation
Nicodemus replied, "How can these things be?"

New King James Version
Nicodemus answered and said to Him, "How can these things be?"

New Living Translation
"How are these things possible?" Nicodemus asked.

New Life Bible
Nicodemus said to Him, "How can this be?"

New Revised Standard
Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?"

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Nicodemus answered, and said unto him - How, can these things, come about?

Douay-Rheims Bible
Nicodemus answered and said to him: How can these things be done?

Revised Standard Version
Nicode'mus said to him, "How can this be?"

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
And Nicodemus answered and sayde vnto him: how can these thinges be?

Young's Literal Translation
Nicodemus answered and said to him, `How are these things able to happen?'

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Nicodemus answered, and sayde vnto him: How maye these be?

Mace New Testament (1729)
Nicodemus answered, how can that be?

Simplified Cowboy Version
"How can this happen though?" Nick asked.

Contextual Overview

¹There was a man of the Pharisee sect, Nicodemus, a prominent leader among the Jews. Late one night he visited Jesus and said, "Rabbi, we all know you're a teacher straight from God. No one could do all the God-pointing, God-revealing acts you do if God weren't in on it." ³ Jesus said, "You're absolutely right. Take it from me: Unless a person is born from above, it's not possible to see what I'm pointing to—to God's kingdom." ⁴ "How can anyone," said Nicodemus, "be born who has already been born and grown up? You can't re-enter your mother's womb and be born again. What are you saying with this ‘born-from-above' talk?" ⁵Jesus said, "You're not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation—the ‘wind-hovering-over-the-water' creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life—it's not possible to enter God's kingdom. When you look at a baby, it's just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can't see and touch—the Spirit—and becomes a living spirit. ⁷"So don't be so surprised when I tell you that you have to be ‘born from above'—out of this world, so to speak. You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it's headed next. That's the way it is with everyone ‘born from above' by the wind of God, the Spirit of God." ⁹ Nicodemus asked, "What do you mean by this? How does this happen?" ¹⁰Jesus said, "You're a respected teacher of Israel and you don't know these basics? Listen carefully. I'm speaking sober truth to you. I speak only of what I know by experience; I give witness only to what I have seen with my own eyes. There is nothing secondhand here, no hearsay. Yet instead of facing the evidence and accepting it, you procrastinate with questions. If I tell you things that are plain as the hand before your face and you don't believe me, what use is there in telling you of things you can't see, the things of God? ¹³"No one has ever gone up into the presence of God except the One who came down from that Presence, the Son of Man. In the same way that Moses lifted the serpent in the desert so people could have something to see and then believe, it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up—and everyone who looks up to him, trusting and expectant, will gain a real life, eternal life. ¹⁶"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him. ¹⁹"This is the crisis we're in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God. Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won't come near it, fearing a painful exposure. But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

How: John 3:4, John 6:52, John 6:60, Proverbs 4:18, Isaiah 42:16, Mark 8:24, Mark 8:25, Luke 1:34

Reciprocal: Joshua 7:26 - So the Lord John 7:36 - manner John 9:10 - General John 14:22 - how 1 Corinthians 15:35 - How 1 Timothy 1:7 - understanding

Cross-References

Genesis 3:12
The Man said, "The Woman you gave me as a companion, she gave me fruit from the tree, and, yes, I ate it." God said to the Woman, "What is this that you've done?"

Genesis 3:13
"The serpent seduced me," she said, "and I ate."

Genesis 3:17
He told the Man: "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree That I commanded you not to eat from, ‘Don't eat from this tree,' The very ground is cursed because of you; getting food from the ground Will be as painful as having babies is for your wife; you'll be working in pain all your life long. The ground will sprout thorns and weeds, you'll get your food the hard way, Planting and tilling and harvesting, sweating in the fields from dawn to dusk, Until you return to that ground yourself, dead and buried; you started out as dirt, you'll end up dirt."

Genesis 3:20
The Man, known as Adam, named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living.

Genesis 3:21
God made leather clothing for Adam and his wife and dressed them.

Genesis 4:9
God said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" He said, "How should I know? Am I his babysitter?"

Genesis 11:5
God came down to look over the city and the tower those people had built.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Nicodemus answered and said unto him,.... Remaining still as ignorant as ever, though Christ had explained the phrase "born again", at which he stumbled, by a being "born of water and of the Spirit", or of the grace of the Spirit of God; and had illustrated this by the free, powerful, and invisible blowing of the wind:

how can these things be? The Arabic version reads, "how can this be?" referring either to the last thing said, that a man's being born of the Spirit, is like the blowing of the wind; or to the explanation of the first expression, that a man should be born of water, and of the Spirit; or to the first assertion itself, that a man should be born again; which notwithstanding the explanation and illustration, seemed as impossible, and as impracticable as ever; or rather to them all, and so the Persic version reads, "how can all these things be?"

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

How can these things be? - Nicodemus was still unwilling to admit the doctrine unless he understood it; and we have here an instance of a man of rank stumbling at one of the plainest doctrines of religion, and unwilling to admit a truth because he could not understand “how” it could be, when he daily admitted the truth of facts in other things which he could as little comprehend. And we may learn:

1.That people will often admit facts on other subjects, and be greatly perplexed by similar facts in religion.

2.That no small part of people’s difficulties are because they cannot understand how or why a thing is.

3.That people of rank and learning are as likely to be perplexed by these things as those in the obscurest and humblest walks of life.

4.That this is one reason why such men, particularly, so often reject the truths of the gospel.

5.That this is a very unwise treatment of truth, and a way which they do not apply to other things.

If the wind cools and refreshes me in summer if it prostrates the oak or lashes the sea into foam - if it destroys my house or my grain, it matters little how it does this; and so of the Spirit. If it renews my heart, humbles my pride, subdues my sin, and comforts my soul, it is a matter of little importance how it does all this. Sufficient for me is it to know that it is done, and to taste the blessings which flow from the renewing. and sanctifying grace of God.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse John 3:9. How can these things be? — Our Lord had very plainly told him how these things could be, and illustrated the new birth by one of the most proper similes that could be chosen; but so intent was this great man an making every thing submit to the testimony of his senses that he appears unwilling to believe any thing, unless he can comprehend it. This is the case with many-they profess to believe because they comprehend; but they are impostors who speak thus: there is not a man in the universe that can fully comprehend one operation, either of God or his instrument nature; and yet they must believe, and do believe, though they never did nor ever can fully comprehend, or account for, the objects of their faith.