What Does John 3:9 Mean in the King James?

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

John 3:9 · KJV

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 question “How can these things be?” asks how they can come into being, so even the doubt carries the language of birth.

THE MEANING

Whenever a new beginning seems impossible to explain, this question rises: how can it come to be? The surrounding image is birth from above and breath or wind beyond control, so the verse gives honest bewilderment a place at the threshold of life received.

THE ROOT

γενέσθαι

genesthai

GROWS FROM

γεν-

gen-

To come into being, happen, or become.

This form asks about something coming to be, while its word family also names origin and birth. The question about how this happens already touches the language of the new birth it is trying to understand.

ALSO GROWS

genesis: Origin, beginning, birth.

γένεσις

Its sense of origin and birth echoes the question of how this new life comes into being.

gennaō: Beget, give birth.

γεννάω

This related word is used for “be born” in John 3:3, tying the question to the image it follows.

THE PATTERN

New life is shown as received from God rather than produced by human lineage or will.

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Genesis 2:7 · KJVGod’s breath turns formed earth into a living person, presenting life as received.

Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

John 1:13 · KJVBirth from God is set apart from birth through human lineage or will.

Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

1 Peter 1:23 · KJVNew birth comes through God’s living word, beyond what perishes.

THE THREAD

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

John 3:3 · KJV

The verb behind “be” in 3:9 and the verb behind “be born” in 3:3 belong to the same word family: coming-to-be and birth meet in the same image. Jesus’ reply gives the question its immediate frame: the life in view comes from above.

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