John 3

In verse 2 we see that Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night. In John 2:23 we find out that it was Passover and it was logical that Nicodemus came by night. It was common of that era to meet people for social reasons at night but somehow commentators have read into this that Nicodemus was fearful of the Pharisees seeing him with Jesus. We know from 3:11-12 Jesus stops speaking to Nicodemus and addresses those with Nicodemus. In the Greek text the "you" there is plural and not singular so Jesus isn't speaking just to Nicodemus but others who were there. This is important because you see a division in both intent and understanding of the people with Nicodemus versus Nicodemus' reasons for talking with Jesus. Nicodemus shows his respect by calling Jesus "Rabbi" a Hebrew word meaning teacher. This act we don't see from the Pharisees in other places only by Nicodemus. Notice Nicodemus says that "we have recognized and understood that You have come a teacher from God". Oidamen from oida the older form of eido (1492) is a plural perfect tense verb which tells us again there were people with him and that they had been deliberating concerning Jesus. Eido means to recognize what you are looking at and understanding what you are seeing. Unfortunately it gets slapped with the word "know" or "see" in the English translations. Nicodemus and the "we" claimed to identify the fact that Jesus was authentically from God. He says that Jesus was from God using the preposition apo (575) which means from but more specifically originally from. Para (3844) in contrast means from nearby. English translators add an "as" to make it grammatically correct but in the text Nicodemus and the "we" recognized that Jesus was a teacher also, from God. The word teacher in Greek didaskolos (1320) means one who teaches doctrine so in the Jewish context the teacher answered to the scribes. Jesus was recognized for His ability to teach doctrine with Divine influence but they still didn't see Jesus as an equal or as God but did recognize the fact He had some relationship to God. Now the "we" is questionable in this regard as we will see in 11-12, but Nicodemus seems genuine in his assertion. Nicodemus gives the reasons for why he and the "we" concluded Jesus was a teacher from God, "for this reason no one is able to do these signs which You do except God be with Him." In that era Jews were obsessed with signs because Old Testament prophesy was filled with things to look for when Messiah was coming or the world was being judged. The word in Greek semeion (4592) a miracle that has a spiritual end, which makes them finger marks of God. Paul said that Jews want signs and Greeks knowledge and in this obsession with signs there is an awe at the miracle but no recognition of the spiritual implications. Here however Nicodemus states that he and the "we" did connect the dots and wanted to hear more from Him. Next we'll examine Jesus' response to Nicodemus.