Making a list, checking it twice.

There's a story, apparently true, of a terrible accident involving an airplane attempting to land on a very wintery day and hitting a snow plow.  As the plane was approaching, the air traffic controller radioed to the snow plow operator to "Clear the runway". While to an air traffic controller that command meant one thing--"Get out of the way, a plane is about to land"--to a snow plow operator it connoted something very different; i.e., "Remove the snow." That confusion in the meaning of terms led to a very sad result.

We are well removed from Jesus' time on earth, the Jewish culture in which he lived and taught, and the worldview which his disciples and his listeners brought to the task of understanding events around them. Consequently there is a real danger of reading into concepts found in the Gospels the meanings that those words, metaphors, and ideas would have now, not necessarily what they would have meant to the original listeners. We are often like that air traffic controller, as we handle ancient writings, who did not appreciate what a term meant in a snow plow operator's context.

[Just in passing, I spent many years grinding my teeth in frustration while listening to so-called bible teachers telling groups of would-be bible students to interpret the Scriptures simply by deciding "what it means to you". Amazingly the students typically found whatever it was they wanted to find. Who needs knowledge of historical context, original meanings, and so on when one can find whatever one prefers by using nothing but modern cultural priorities and biases. But I digress.]

We are exploring the fundamental New Testament concept of being born again. But I had not until recently researched what the term mean to a first century AD Jew. What would have gone through Nicodemus' mind when Jesus told him not to be surprised that he (Nicodemus) would have to be born again?

Just before I give you this list, one observation about being born the first time. According to some Jewish sources I've consulted, "born of water" was simply a Jewish idiom for physical birth (a reference to amniotic fluid), and had nothing to do with baptism. Whatever those of the baptismal regeneration school of thought think of the matter, to Nicodemus Jesus' use of the term would have simply meant the physical birth of a baby.

To a Jew of that day, being born again could mean any of the following:

• The conversion of a non-Jew (or Gentile) to Judaism.
• Coming of age, the bar mitzvah celebrated when Jewish boys turn 13. The equivalent celebration for Jewish girls is called the bat mitzvah. 
  
• Getting married.
• Repentance. For a pious man like Nicodemus repentance was probably a regular practice, but every observant Jew would repent of his/her sins at least yearly at Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement).
• Baptism. Jewish people were very concerned about ritual cleanliness, so there were many immersions in Rabbinic Judaism. When they came out of the water they were ritually clean, and thus able to participate in religious rites. Remember how the Pharisees baptized not only themselves but even their dishes and their beds (Mark 7:1-4). 
• Ordination to become a rabbi, which Nicodemus, "a teacher of Israel", certainly was.
• Being crowned king. 

 I can just imagine Nicodemus running down the list as Jesus was telling him, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."

"What the heck is Rabbi Jesus talking about" (however a pious 1st century Jew might phrase it)? I'm certainly here, so I was physically born once. I'm a Jew so there's no need for conversion. I'm well past 13. I'm married. I repent routinely. I practice ritual immersions as any good Pharisee would. I'm a rabbi myself. What's left--that I become the next king of Israel?"

Rather than answering in a confused fashion, Nicodemus might simply have been humouring Jesus when he replied, "How can a man be born when he is old? Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!"

Jesus took no offense, but reiterated, "No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water (physical birth) and the Spirit (birth from above). Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit."

What was Jesus saying? Stay tuned.