JESUS SAID YOU MUST BE “BORN FROM ABOVE” NOT "BORN AGAIN"?

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The term "Born Again Christian" is used to describe anyone that has received Jesus Christ as his/her personal Lord and Saviour. One who believes in Jesus Christ and one who has been regenerated through the agent of the Holy Spirit.

The phrase "born again" can be seen in John chapter 3 in King James Version (KJV) and most other English Bible Versions.

(John 3:3 KJV) Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 

(John 3:3 CEV) "Jesus replied, "I tell you for certain that you must be born from above before you can see God's kingdom!" 

The Greek phrase is gennēthē anōthen which generally means "begotten from above" or "born from above". It can also mean "born again". Does this same double meaning of this Greek phrase apply also in Aramaic, which Jesus is assumed to have spoken, or did Jesus also speak Greek? Well, some texts suggest that Galilee, where Jesus was from, had a strong presence of Hellenistic, Greek-speaking Jews and also that many inscriptions in the Holy Land from tombs to synagogues are in Greek. So the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus may have been in Greek.

But what Jesus had in mind is "born from above", however, Nicodemus misunderstood it, interprets it as "born again" and takes it to mean “entering one’s mother’s womb a second time.

(John 3:4 KJV) Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?

Jesus responded, using the word in the sense of “from above” (i.e from God and Spirit which are above).

(John 3:5-8 CEV) Jesus answered: I tell you for certain that before you can get into God's kingdom, you must be born not only by water, but by the Spirit. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Don't be surprised when I say that you must be born from above. Only God's Spirit gives new life. The Spirit is like the wind that blows wherever it wants to. You can hear the wind, but you don't know where it comes from or where it is going.

Jesus is saying in the above verse that you must be born from above and not born again as was interpreted by Nicodemus.

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