Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?”
How, &c.--The figure of the new birth, if it had been meant only of Gentile proselytes to the Jewish religion, would have been intelligible enough to Nicodemus, being quite in keeping with the language of that day; but that Jews themselves should need a new birth was to him incomprehensible.
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? (f) How can I who am old be born again? For Nicodemus answers as if Christ's words were only addressed to himself.
Nicodemus stumbles at a straw because the Scribes neglected what was chief in piety. While renewal runs through all of Scripture, these men wasted their lives on useless subtleties and despised the simplicity of doctrine as beneath them. God justly blinds those who esteem themselves too great to learn.
AI summary