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?”
4. How can a man be born when he is old? Though the form of expression which Christ employed was not contained in the Law and the prophets, yet as renewal is frequently mentioned in Scripture, and is one of the first principles of faith, it is evident how imperfectly skilled the Scribes at that time were in the reading of the Scriptures.
We found, in the close of the foregoing chapter, that few were brought to Christ at Jerusalem; yet here was one, a considerable one. It is worth while to go a great way for the salvation though but of one soul. Observe, I. Who this Nicodemus was. Not many mighty and noble are called; yet some are, and here was one.
Commenting on John 3:1-21
Jesus answered, verily, verily, I say unto thee,.... Explaining somewhat more clearly, what he before said: except a man be born of water and of the Spirit: these are, , "two words", which express the same thing, as Kimchi observes in many places in his commentaries, and signify the grace of the Spirit of God.