John 3:9-10

“ Nicodemus answered and said unto him: How can these things be? 10. Jesus answered and said unto him: Thou art the teacher of Israel, and thou knowest not these things! ”

Nicodemus does not deny; but he acknowledges himself a stranger to all experience of the action of the Spirit. It is Jesus' turn to be astonished. He discovers with surprise such spiritual ignorance in one who, at this moment, represents before Him the teaching of the old covenant. Something of bitterness has been found in this reply; it expresses nothing but legitimate astonishment. Ought not such passages as Jeremiah 31:33; Ezekiel 36:26-28; Psalms 143:10-11, to have prepared Nicodemus to understand the power of the divine breath? But the Pharisees set their hearts only on the glory of the kingdom, rather than on its holiness.

The article ὁ before διδάσκαλος, “ the teacher” has been interpreted in the sense: “the well-known, illustrious teacher” (Winer, Keil.) The irony would, thus, be very strong. This article, rather, designates Nicodemus as the representative of the Israelitish teaching office, as the official διδασκαλία personified. Comp. the ὁ ἐσθίων Mark 14:18.

The tenth verse forms the transition to the second part of the conversation. That which externally marks this part is the silence of Nicodemus. As Hengstenberg observes, he seems to say, like Job before Jehovah: “ I am too small; what shall I answer? I have spoken once; but I put my hand upon my mouth. ” On His part, Jesus treats him with a touching kindness and condescension; He has found him humble and docile, and He now opens Himself to him without reserve. Nicodemus came, as we have seen, to interrogate Him respecting His Messianic mission and the mode of the establishment of the divine kingdom so long expected. He did not by any means preoccupy his thoughts with the moral conditions on which he might himself enter into that state of things. A faithful Jew, a pious Pharisee, a holy Sanhedrist, he believed himself saved by the very fact that he was such. Jesus, as a consummate educator, began by reminding him of what he forgot, the practical question. He taught him that which he did not ask for, but that which it was more important for him to know. And now He reveals to him kindly all that which he desired to know: He declares to him what He is (John 3:11-13); what He comes to do (John 3:14-17); and what will result for humanity from His coming (John 3:18-21).

The first part of the conversation is summed up thus: What will take place? Answer: Nothing, in the sense in which you understand it. The second means: And yet something really takes place, and even a thing most unheard of: The supreme revelator is present; redemption is about to be accomplished; the universal judgment is preparing. Such are the divine facts which are displayed before the eyes of Nicodemus in the second part of the conversation. The conduct of Jesus with this man is thus in complete contrast with that which had been mentioned in John 2:24. He trusts Himself to him; for He has recognized his perfect uprightness; comp. John 3:21.

The positive teaching does not, properly, begin until 3 John 1:11; 3 John 1:11; 3 John 3:11-12, are prefatory to it.

This passage John 3:11-13 is clearly joined to John 3:2; Nicodemus had spoken in the name of several: “ We know...” (John 3:1); Jesus addresses himself to these absent interlocutors: “ You receive not...; if I told you...” (John 3:11 b and 12a). Nicodemus had called Jesus a teacher “ come from God ” (John 3:1). Jesus shows him that he has spoken more truly than he thought; He reveals Himself to him as the Son of man, descended from heaven to bear witness of heavenly things (John 3:13). This relation between John 3:1 and John 3:11-13 proves that the whole of the beginning of the conversation, John 3:3-10, was called forth accidentally, and is in reality but an episode; and that now only do the revelations, which Nicodemus had come to seek, properly speaking, begin.