Bogoslovska smotra, Vol. 90 No. 2, 2020.
Review article
The New Birth from Above (Jn 3:1-12) in the Context of Jesus’s Open Anthropology
Arkadiusz Krasicki
orcid.org/0000-0002-6229-5233
; University of Zadar, Department of Theology and Catechism , Zadar, Croatia_________
Abstract
The term »new birth« in Jn 3:5 is often used in the Biblical theology and is an object of exegetical-hermeneutical research. In the context of Jesus’s open anthropology, the »new birth from above« becomes an even more obvious sign of supernatural Divine intervention in the life of not only Nicodemus, but of every human being. In the encounter of Jesus and Nicodemus Jesus explains to Nicodemus – a human being and a pharisee – the way of salvation that demands his faith. Many interpreters of that passage see the sacrament of baptism in the workings of the Holy Spirit and in »being born from water«. Although the Gospel writer makes use of the technic of misunderstanding and interruption of dialogical communication within the composition, Jesus approachesthe representative of his religious opponents with love and proclaims to him the way to the Kingdom of God in which one enters in a new way – by grace from above.
Keywords
Jesus; Nicodemus; »new birth from above«; faith; baptism; Spirit.
Hrčak ID:
243111
URI
Publication date:
31.8.2020.
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