What Does John 3:2 Mean?
He came to Jesus in the night and said to him, "Teacher, we know that you have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him."
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.THE KEY
The same Greek verb describes Nicodemus coming to Jesus and Jesus having come from God: the seeker and the teacher are both in motion.
THE MEANING
The verse meets you in the act of coming: you approach Jesus, and his works point beyond themselves to God’s presence with him. The seeker’s movement and Jesus’ origin stand side by side.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that extraordinary works arise from human power alone falls away here: they point to God being with the one who does them.
THE ROOT
ἦλθεν
ēlthen
GROWS FROM
ἔρχομαι
erchomai
to come, go, or arrive
“came” in this verse is ēlthen. The same verb appears twice: Nicodemus comes to Jesus, and he says Jesus has come from God. English keeps the actions distinct, while Greek lets one verb join the seeker’s approach to Jesus’ origin.
ALSO GROWS
ēlthen: came
ἦλθεν
This is Nicodemus’s movement toward Jesus.
elēlythas: have come
ἐλήλυθας
This is the same verb applied to Jesus’ coming from God; the repeated root links the two movements.
THE PATTERN
Visible works can serve as signs that make God’s presence recognizable.
So that they will lean their weight on this, that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has been seen by you.Jesus answered them, I told you, and you do not trust. The works that I do in my Father's nature bear witness to me.Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man shown forth by God among you through works of strength and wonders and signs, which God did through him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also know.THE THREAD
Jesus said to them, If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came out from God, and I am here. Nor did I come from myself, but he sent me.The same Greek verb for “come” appears in Jesus’ words here and in Nicodemus’s statement that Jesus has come from God. John 8:42 opens that recognition further: Jesus’ coming is joined to being sent by God.
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