Born again

==Origin==
[[File:Nicodemus Jesus.jpg|thumb|''Jesus and [[Nicodemus]]'', painting by [[Alexandre Bida]], 1874]]

The term is derived from an event in the [[Gospel of John]] in which the words of [[Jesus]] were not understood by a Jewish Pharisee, [[Nicodemus]]:

{{Blockquote|Jesus replied, "Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again." "How can someone be born when they are old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother's womb to be born!" Jesus answered, "Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit."|Gospel of John, chapter 3, verses 3–5, [[New International Version]]<ref>{{bibleverse|John|3:3–5|NIV}}</ref>}}

The [[Gospel of John]] was written in [[Koine Greek]], and the original text is ambiguous which results in a [[double entendre]] that Nicodemus misunderstands.  The word translated as 'again' is {{lang|grc|ἄνωθεν}} ({{transliteration|grc|ánōtʰen}}), which could mean either 'again', or 'from above'.<ref>Danker, Frederick W., et al, ''A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature'', 3rd ed (Chicago: University of Chicago,2010), 92. Specifically see the first (from above) and fourth (again, anew) meanings.</ref> The double entendre is a [[figure of speech]] that the gospel writer uses to create bewilderment or [[Ambiguity|misunderstanding]] in the hearer; the misunderstanding is then clarified by either Jesus or the narrator. Nicodemus takes only the literal meaning from Jesus's statement, while Jesus clarifies that he means more of a spiritual rebirth from above.  English translations have to pick one sense of the phrase or another; the NIV, [[King James Version]], and [[Revised Version]] use "born again", while the [[New Revised Standard Version]]<ref>{{Bibleverse|John|3:3|NRSV}}</ref> and the [[New English Translation]]<ref>{{Bibleverse|John|3:3|NET}}</ref> prefer the "born from above" translation.<ref name="MSM">Mullen, MS., in Kurian, GT., ''The Encyclopedia of Christian Civilization'', J. Wiley & Sons, 2012, p. 302.</ref> Most versions will note the alternative sense of the phrase {{transliteration|grc|ánōtʰen}} in a footnote.

Edwyn Hoskyns argues that "born from above" is to be preferred as the fundamental meaning and he drew attention to phrases such as "birth of the Spirit",<ref>{{bibleverse|John|1:5|KJV}}</ref> "birth from God",<ref>cf. {{bibleverse|John|1:12–13|KJV}}; {{bibleverse|1 John|2:29|KJV}}, {{bibleverse|1 John|3:9|KJV}}, {{bibleverse|1 John|4:7|KJV}}, {{bibleverse|1 John|5:18|KJV}}</ref> but maintains that this necessarily carries with it an emphasis upon the newness of the life as given by God himself.<ref>Hoskyns, Sir Edwyn C. and Davy, F.N.(ed), ''The Fourth Gospel'', Faber & Faber 2nd ed. 1947, pp. 211, 212</ref>

The final use of the phrase occurs in the [[First Epistle of Peter]], rendered in the King James Version as:

{{Blockquote|Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, [see that ye] love one another with a pure heart fervently: / Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.|source=1 Peter 1:22–23<ref>{{Bibleverse|1Peter|1:22–23|KJV}}</ref>}}

Here, the Greek word translated as 'born again' is {{lang|grc|ἀναγεγεννημένοι}} ({{transliteration|grc|anagegennēménoi}}).<ref name="SJF">Fisichella, SJ., ''Taking Away the Veil: To See Beyond the Curtain of Illusion'', iUniverse, 2003, pp. 55–56.</ref>

===Interpretations===
The traditional Jewish understanding of the promise of salvation is interpreted as being rooted in "the seed of Abraham"; that is, physical lineage from Abraham. Jesus explained to Nicodemus that this doctrine was in error{{snd}}that every person must have two births{{snd}}natural birth of the physical body and another of the water and the spirit.<ref>Emmons, Samuel B. ''A Bible Dictionary.'' BiblioLife, 2008. {{ISBN|978-0-554-89108-8}}.</ref> This discourse with Nicodemus established the Christian belief that all human beings{{snd}}whether Jew or Gentile{{snd}}must be "born again" of the spiritual seed of Christ. This understanding is further reinforced in 1 Peter 1:23.<ref>{{Bibleverse|1Peter|1:23}}</ref><ref name="SJF" /> The ''Catholic Encyclopedia'' states that "[a] controversy existed in the primitive church over the interpretation of the expression ''the [[seed of Abraham]]''. It is [the First Epistle of Peter's] teaching in one instance that all who are Christ's by faith are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to promise. He is concerned, however, with the fact that the promise is not being fulfilled to the seed of Abraham (referring to the Jews)."<ref>Driscoll, James F. "Divine Promise (in Scripture)". The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 15 November 2009.[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12453a.htm]</ref>

[[Charles Hodge]] writes that "The subjective change wrought in the soul by the grace of God, is variously designated in Scripture" with terms such as ''new birth'', ''resurrection'', ''new life'', ''new creation'', ''renewing of the mind'', ''dying to sin and living to righteousness'', and ''translation from darkness to light''.<ref name="Hodge1">{{Cite web |title=Systematic Theology – Volume III – Christian Classics Ethereal Library |url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/hodge/theology3.iii.i.i.html |access-date=11 September 2019 |website=www.ccel.org}}</ref>

Jesus used the "birth" analogy in tracing spiritual newness of life to a divine beginning. Contemporary Christian theologians have provided explanations for "born from above" being a more accurate translation of the original Greek word transliterated {{transliteration|grc|ánōtʰen}}.<ref>[http://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/nas/anothen.html ''The New Testament Greek Lexicon.''] 30 July 2009.</ref> [[Frank Stagg (theologian)|Theologian Frank Stagg]] cites two reasons why the newer translation is significant:

# The emphasis "from {{em|above}}" (implying "from {{em|Heaven}}") calls attention to the source of the "newness of life". Stagg writes that the word 'again' does not include the {{em|source}} of the new kind of beginning;
# More than personal improvement is needed; "a new destiny requires a new origin, and the new origin must be from God."<ref>Stagg, Evelyn and Frank. ''Woman in the World of Jesus.'' Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1978. {{ISBN|0-664-24195-6}}</ref>

An early example of the term in its more modern use appears in the sermons of [[John Wesley]]. In the sermon entitled ''A New Birth'' he writes, "none can be holy unless he be born again", and "except he be born again, none can be happy even in this world. For{{nbsp}}[...] a man should not be happy who is not holy." Also, "I say, [a man] may be born again and so become an heir of salvation." Wesley also states infants who are baptized are born again, but for adults it is different:

{{blockquote|our church supposes, that all who are baptized in their infancy, are at the same time born again.{{nbsp}}[...] But{{nbsp}}[...] it is sure all of riper years, who are baptized, are not at the same time born again.<ref>Wesley, J., ''The works of  the Reverend John Wesley'', Methodist Episcopal Church, 1831, pp. 405–406.</ref>}}

A [[Unitarianism|Unitarian]] work called ''The Gospel Anchor'' noted in the 1830s that the phrase was not mentioned in any of the Gospels,{{efn|Though the canonical gospels are traditionally attributed to the [[Four Evangelists]], modern scholarship views all four as anonymously written, and later attributed to the Evangelists.}} nor by any Epistles except in that of 1 Peter. "It was not regarded by any of the Evangelists but John of sufficient importance to record." It adds that without John, "we should hardly have known that it was necessary for one to be born again." This suggests that "the text and context was meant to apply to Nicodemus particularly, and not to the world."<ref>LeFevre, CF. and Williamson, ID., ''The Gospel anchor''. Troy, NY, 1831–32, p. 66. [https://books.google.com/books?id=3T4rAAAAYAAJ]</ref>

===Historicity===
Scholars of the [[historical Jesus]], who attempt to ascertain how closely the stories of Jesus match the historical events they are based on, generally treat Jesus's conversation with Nicodemus in [[John 3]] with skepticism. It details what is presumably a private conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, with none of the disciples seemingly attending, making it unclear how a record of this conversation was acquired. In addition, the conversation is recorded in no other ancient Christian source other than John and works based on John.<ref name="jesusbefore" /> According to [[Bart Ehrman]], the larger issue is that the same problem English translations of the Bible have with the Greek {{lang|grc|ἄνωθεν}} ({{transliteration|grc|ánōtʰen}}) is a problem in the [[Aramaic language]] as well: there is no single word in Aramaic that means both 'again' and 'from above', yet the conversation rests on Nicodemus making this misunderstanding.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Biblical Errancy: The "Born Again" Dialogue In the Gospel of John |url=https://etb-biblical-errancy.blogspot.com/2012/04/born-again-dialogue-in-gospel-of-john.html |access-date=11 September 2019 |website=Biblical Errancy}}</ref> As the conversation was between two Jews in Jerusalem, where Aramaic was the native language, there is no reason to think that they would have spoken in Greek.<ref name="jesusbefore" /> This implies that even if based on a real conversation, the author of John heavily modified it to include Greek wordplay and idiom.<ref name="jesusbefore">{{Cite book |last=Ehrman |first=Bart |title=Jesus Before the Gospels: How the Earliest Christians Remembered, Changed, and Invented Their Stories of the Savior |publisher=[[HarperOne]] |year=2016 |isbn=978-0062285201 |pages=108&ndash;109 |author-link=Bart Ehrman}}</ref>