Belleville - Born of Water and Spirit
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TrinJ INS (1980) 125141 "BORN OF WATER AND SPI RIT:" JO HN 3:5 LINDA BELLEVILL E TRINITY EVANGELICAL DIVINITY SCHOOL Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of wa te r an d Sp ir it, he cann ot ent er i nto the kin gdom of God." Jesus' seemingly simple statement in John 3:5 concerning birth of water and Spirit has sparked the interest of exegetes and theologians down through the centuries. A confusi ng ar ra y of interpretations has been the result. Moreo ver , the history of interpretation of this verse has been complicated by the fact that most interpretations have been arrived at either on the basis of presuppositions that have predisposed the interpreter in favor of a particular view of the verse,! or through contemporary literary parallels unsupported, on the whole, by con- textual evidence. 2 W h a t these interpretations have in common is a tendency to impose on the text a "favored" idea re gar di ng the meaning o f ν 5 rather than allowing the text itself to establish necessary parameters of meaning. A s J. D. G. Du nn aptly states regarding the identification of #δωρ ("water") with Christian baptism: "It is a sad commentary on the poverty of our own immediate experience of the Spirit... that we automatically refer it (the Spirit) to the sacrament and ca n only give it meaning when we do." 3 It is the intent of this article to evaluate the major lines of interpretation on the basis of contextual and theological considerations, and then to attempt to arrive at a f res h unders tandin g of yepirqufi €%*υδατος καιπνβυµατος ("born of wa te r and Spirit") that arises nat ur all y an d dire ctl y fr om the text itself. / . MAJOR LINES OF INTERPRETATION The re is gr ea t diversity of opinion as to what "born of water and Spirit" means. Interpretations may be grouped according to the following six categories: ritualistic, symbolic, physiological, dualistic, cosmological and figurative. 1. Ritualistic Views of * Τδωρ Ritualistic views οΐ*υδωρ fall into one of two categories of interpretation: (a) those which ass ume a basic contrast bet ween ιίδωρ an d πνβυµα, *6δωρ lE.g., O. Cullman, Baptism in th e N ew Testament, Studies in Bibli cal Theology, n. 1 (London: SCM Press, 1950). Those who see numerous sacramental allusions in the Gospel as a whole ar e strongly inclined to see one in John 3:5. ^E.g., antiEssene polemic, water understood as a symbol for the Torah, or "water and Spirit" as figurative for spiritual semen.
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