John 1:13

οἳ οὐκ ἐξ αἱμάτων … ἐγεννήθησαν. This first mention of τέκνα θεοῦ suggests the need of further defining how these children of God are produced. The ἐκ denotes the source of the relationship. First he negatives certain ordinary causes of birth, not so much because they could be supposed in connection with children of God (although thoughts of hereditary rights might arise in Jewish minds) as for the sake of emphasising by contrast the true source. οὐκ ἐξ αἱμάτων; that is, not by ordinary physical generation. αἵμα was commonly used to denote descent; Acts 17:26, Odys. iv. 611, αἵματος εἰς ἀγάθοιο. This is rather a Greek than a Hebrew expression. The plural αἱμάτων has given rise to many conjectural explanations; and the idea currently received is that it suggests the constituent parts of which the blood is composed (Godet, Meyer). Westcott says: “The use of the plural appears to emphasise the idea of the element out of which in various measures the body is formed”. Both explanations are doubtful. The plural is used very commonly in the Sept [27], 2 Samuel 16:8, ἀνὴρ αἱμάτων σύ; Psalms 25:9, μετὰ ἀνδρῶν αἱμάτων; 2 Chronicles 24:25, etc.; and especially where much slaughter or grievous murder is spoken of. Cf. Eurip., Iph. in Taur., 73. It occurs in connection with descent in Eurip., Ion., 693, ἄλλων τραφεὶς ἐξ αἱμάτων (Lücke). The reason of John's preference for the plural in this place is not obvious; he may perhaps have wished to indicate that all family histories and pedigrees were here of no account, no matter how many illustrious ancestors a man could reckon, no matter what bloods united to produce him. οὐδὲ … ἄνδρος. The combination of these clauses by οὐδὲ … οὐδὲ and not by οὔτε … οὔτε excludes all interpretations which understand these two clauses as subdivisions of the foregoing. οὐδέ adds negation to negation: οὔτε divides a single negation into parts (see Winer, p. 612). “Nor of the will of the flesh,” i.e., not as the result of sexual instinct; “nor of the will of a man.” i.e., not the product of human purpose (“Fortschritt von Stoff zum Naturtrieb und zum persönlichen Thun,” Holtzmann). Cf. Delitzsch, Bibl. Psych., p. 290, note E. Tr. ἀλλʼ ἐκ θεοῦ ἐγεννήθησαν. The source of regeneration positively stated. Human will is repudiated as the source of the new birth, but as in physical birth the life of the child is at once manifested, so in spiritual birth the human will first manifests regeneration. In spiritual as in physical birth the origination is from without, not from ourselves; but just because our spiritual birth is spiritual the will must take its part in it. Nothing is spiritual into which the will does not enter.

[27] Septuagint.