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To: kosta50
And, btw, John 3:3 is a contentious verse. It neither says "born again" nor could it have been said in Aramaic.

I am not disagreeing, but for the unlearned what does John 3:3 really say?

505 posted on 01/20/2011 10:12:29 AM PST by Just mythoughts
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To: Just mythoughts
what does John 3:3 really say?

John uses the word "from above" (anothen), not "again". The word anothen means also "from the beginning." Nowehere in the NT does it mean "again." The word for "again" in Greek is palin. Curiously, Paul uses the phrase plain anothen once in the entire NT, which translations treat as simple "again". But anothen alone is never translated as "again" except in John 3:3, and that only by some Bible versions, not all.

Judging from the Nicodemus' reaction (John 3:4), he (mis)understood Jesus' words to mean literally "again". The problem with that is that Jesus and Nicodmeus would have been speaking in Aramaic, not Greek, and such misunderstanding, while very remotely possible in Greek (based on Paul's singular example), is not possible is Aramaic.

Bible scholars conclude, therefore, that the conversation never took place, but was rather created by John for a specific agenda.

520 posted on 01/20/2011 11:04:54 AM PST by kosta50 ("Spirit of Spirit...give me over to immortal birth so that I may be born again" -- Mithral prayer)
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