#second birth

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. - John 3:5 | Modern English Version (MEV)

The Second Birth in Spirit

When Jesus, in the Gospel of John, tells Nicodemus that one must be born again to see the Kingdom of God, the disciple responds with astonishment: “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” (John 3:4). The exchange reveals the collision between literal reasoning and mystical speech. Nicodemus thinks of biological flesh and temporal sequence; Christ speaks of a deeper birth that takes place in the hidden womb of the Spirit. This dialogue opens the path to the language of the Kabbalah, where Binah, the Mother, holds the secret of rebirth.

Nicodemus, a Pharisee and teacher, cannot grasp the depth of the word anōthen in John 3:3, which can mean both “again” and “from above.” His mind remains fixed on physical return to the maternal womb, a process bound by time, space and decay. The question “can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb” is the mark of this limitation.

More at The Mirror of Sienna.