ἀμὴν, ἀμὴν … οὐ λαμβάνετε. From this point dialogue ceases, and we have now an unbroken utterance of Jesus. It starts with a certification of the truth of what Nicodemus had professed himself unable to understand. ὃ οἴδαμεν λαλοῦμεν. Why plural? Were the disciples present and are they included? Or does it mean Jesus and the prophets, or Jesus and the Baptist, or Jesus and the Father, or is it the rhetorical “we”? Possibly it is merely an unconscious transition to the plural, as in this same verse the σοι of the first clause becomes a plural in λαμβάνετε in the last clause. Or there may be an indefinite identification of Himself with all who had apprehended the nature of the new birth the Baptist and the best of his disciples. Jesus does not wish to represent Himself as alone able to testify of such matters. Weiss' view is peculiar. He thinks that the contents of the μαρτυροῦμεν consist of what John and Jesus saw at the Baptism, when the Spirit's descent indicated Jesus as the Baptiser with the Spirit.

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Old Testament