Post #2014316

Christ did not say one must be born "again." The word Christ used is not translated to "again" in the rest of scripture (even in the same chapter) nor is it translated to "again" from any work of the same language by any author--whether scriptural or secular--anywhere, in any century, before or after. The word Christ used is an adverb belonging to a family of adverbs: Anothen ('of above'--this is the word He used), katothen ('of below'), exothen ('of without'), esothen ('of within') and so on from every direction (left, right, forward, behind). 'Ana' (shifted to 'ano-' in pronunciation and spelling when used as a prefix) means 'up'. 'Of above' is the only meaning it ever has in all of the rest of scripture--in all instances before and after this verse, even according to the translations of these same "expert" translators! Just this one verse is the exception, they assure. (💀) The translators are assuming Nicodemus, a Pharisee trained in the Pharisee tradition, is not mistaken (surely!) and only asking (restating what Christ said! only taking too literally! the silly man) when Nicodemus gives his retarded follow up of "How is a man able to be born, being old? Is he able into the womb of his mother a second time to enter, and to be born?" These expert translators assume Nicodemus is but only shocked, simply taking Christ's words that "one must be born of above" too literally because he's too thick, unlike the translators, to understand Christ is giving a metaphor of repentance. So the translators replace Christ's word so that it matches Nicodemus' question. Except Christ isn't talking about repentance here. He's not sperging out, responding non-sequitur to nothing, pivoting to a new topic. Christ is responding to Nicodemus. Nicodemus had just been telling Christ that Nicodemus knows Christ must be of God "for no one these signs is able to do that thou doest, if God may not be with him." Nicodemus is having to meet Christ in the night to confess this. (Many of his fellow Pharisees--aka fellow Judeans--aka "Judeans who are not Judeans, but do lie"--aka "not My sheep" as named by Him who came "for the lost sheep of the House of Israel"--would be pissed at Nicodemus for seeing and confessing Christ.) So Christ responds to Nicodemus' confession under such nocturnal circumstances that "if any one may not be born of above" (a quality, not a thing to do), "he is not able to see the reign of God" (that He, Christ, is of God). Nicodemus, doofus extraodinaire, mistakes this as a pivot in topic to some thing one must do to see some future reign of God because he initially isn't getting that Christ is telling Nicodemus why Nicodemus is seeing Christ is of God while "fellows" do not. Christ chastises him for his take from Christ's plain words for the rest of the passage. The same misunderstanding Nicodemus initially made, translators have enshrined into (and as) scripture--even replacing Christ's word. So now this is the "understanding" for many.