What Does John 3:5 Mean in the King James?
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The birth that opens God’s governance happens through water and pneuma, a word that carries breath, wind, and Spirit.
THE MEANING
This verse places water and breath at the threshold of God’s governance: entry comes through birth. That birth is received rather than manufactured by the one being born, naming a beginning that is present to the reader now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that entrance into God’s life is earned by self-effort; the verse describes it as birth, received through water and breath.
THE ROOT
πνεύματος
pneumatos
GROWS FROM
πνέω
pneō
To blow or breathe.
The Greek noun here, pneuma, carries the meanings breath, wind, and spirit. In John 3:8, the same word is rendered “wind” and the related verb describes blowing, so the birth in this verse is spoken of in the language of moving breath and wind.
ALSO GROWS
pneō: To blow or breathe.
πνέω
In John 3:8, this verb describes the wind blowing, linking the verse’s birth language with moving air.
pnoē: Breath or a blast of wind.
πνοή
In Acts 2:2, this related word describes the sound “as of a rushing mighty wind,” keeping breath and wind within one word family.
γεννηθῇ
gennēthē
GROWS FROM
γενν-
genn-
To beget, generate, or bring to birth.
The form here is passive: the person is born; they do not produce the birth. The same word family names birth and what is born, so the verse describes a received source of life, not something the reader manufactures.
ALSO GROWS
gennēsis: Birth or begetting.
γέννησις
This noun names the birth itself, making the verse’s language about a new beginning concrete.
gennēma: Offspring or what is produced.
γέννημα
This word names what comes from birth, showing how the root links the act of birth with the life that emerges from it.
THE PATTERN
God’s life begins through cleansing and renewal that are received, not self-produced.
Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;THE THREAD
Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.“Born” in both verses comes from the same Greek word family, γεννάω (gennaō), meaning to beget or give birth. John 1:13 opens the source named here: this birth is of God.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us