[1833] For detailed examination and proof I must here refer the reader to Canon Westcott's Commentary.
[1834] St. John iii. 8.
[1835] I cannot agree with Archdeacon Watkins, who would render it, The Spirit breathes' - an opinion, so far as I know, unsupported, and which seems to me ill-accordant with the whole context.
[1836] The expression, Kingdom of God,' occurs only in iii. 3 and iii. 5 of the fourth Gospel. Otherwise the expression My Kingdom' is used in xviii. 36. This exceptional use of the Synoptic term, Kingdom of God,' is noteworthy in this connection, and not without its important bearing on the question of the authorship of the fourth Gospel.
[1837] Notwithstanding the high authority of Professor Westcott, I must still hold that this, and now anew,' is the right rendering. The word nothen has always the meaning above' in the fourth Gospel (ch. iii. 3, 7, 31; xix. 11, 23); and otherwise also St. John always speaks of a birth' from God (St. John i. 13; 1 John ii. 29; iii. 9; iv. 7; v. 1, 4, 18).
[1838] This is at least implied by Wünsche, and taken for granted by others. But ancient Jewish tradition and the Talmud do not speak of it. Comp. Yebam. 22 a, 62 a; 97 a and b; Bekhor 47 a. Proselytes are always spoken of as new creatures,' Ber. R. 39, ed. Warsh. p. 72 a; Bemidb. R. 11. In Vayyikra R. 30, Ps. cii. 18, the people that shall be created' is explained: For the Holy One, blessed be His Name, will create them a new creature.' In Yalkut on Judg. vi. 1 (vol. ii. p. 10 c, about the middle) this new creation is connected with the forgiveness of sins, it being maintained that whoever has a miracle done, and praises God for it, his sins are forgiven, and he is made a new creature. This is illustrated by the history of Israel at the Red Sea, by that of Deborah and Barak, and by that of David. In Shem. R. 3 (ed. Warsh. ii. p. 11 a) the words Ex. iv. 12, teach thee what thou shalt say,' are explained as equivalent to I will create thee a new creation.'
[1839] Yebam. 62 a.
[1840] Yalkut on 1 Sam. xiii.
[1841] As in Yalkut.
[1842] ver. 4.
[1843] The clause Who is in heaven' is regarded, on critical grounds, as a gloss. But, even so, it seems almost a necessary gloss, in view of the Jewish notions about the ascent of Moses into heaven. Strange to say, the passage referred to forced Socinus to the curious dogma that before the commencement of His ministry Jesus had been rapt in spirit to heaven. (Comp. The History and Development of Socinianism,' in the North. Brit. Rev. May 1859.)
[1844] This in many places. Comp., for ex., Jer. Targ. on Deut. xxx. 12, and the shocking notice in Bemid. R. 19. Another view, however, Sukk. 5 a.
[1845] So already in Wisdom of Solomon xvi. 7; still more clearly in the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Numb. xxi. 8, 9: He who lifted up his heart to the name of the Memra of Jehovah, lived;' and in the Jerusalem Targum on the passage: And Moses made a serpent of brass, and set it on a place aloft [of uplifting] (talé - the same term, curiously, which is applied by the Jews to Christ as the Uplifted' or Crucified' One). And it was that every one that was bitten with the serpent, and lifted his face in prayer (the word implies humbled prayer) unto His Father Who is in heaven, and looked unto the brazen serpent, he was healed.' Similarly Rosh haSh iii. 8. Buxtorf's learned tractate on the Brazen Serpent (Exercitationes, pp. 458-492) adds little to our knowledge.
[1846] Yalkut, vol. i. p. 240.
[1847] This seems the correct reading. Comp. Canon Westcott's note on the passage, and in general his most full and thorough criticism of the various readings in this chapter.