The Bible for beginners for 24 November 2025

King James Version (en)

John, Chapter 3, verses 1-21

¹ Christ teacheth Nicodemus the necessity of regeneration, ¹⁴ of faith in his death, ¹⁶ the great love of God towards the world, ¹⁸ condemnation for unbelief

¹There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:

²The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.

³Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

⁴Nicodemus 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?

⁵Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

⁶That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

⁷Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

⁸The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

⁹Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?

¹⁰Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?

¹¹Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.

¹²If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?

¹³And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.

¹⁴And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:

¹⁵That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

¹⁶For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

¹⁷For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

¹⁸He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

¹⁹And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

²⁰For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

²¹But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

NOTES

It is no wonder that Jesus' words shocked Nicodemus so much. In his view, a place in the Kingdom of the coming Messiah was guaranteed to him by the very fact of being born to Jewish parents and belonging to the chosen people. But the Lord tells him, and us, that...

This verse helps us find the answer to the question of "unceasing prayer." Before, when reflecting on monks, it was hard not to think about how difficult it must be for the poor...

As often happens, the most important thing in today's Gospel reading is its direct meaning. In the conversation taking place at night with Nicodemus, a man no longer young and wise with experience, the Lord speaks about...

FAQ

In the Holy Gospel according to John, chapter 3, verse 7, it is written about being born again. What does it mean to be born again, and what is the holy apostle writing about?

The holy apostle John writes about what Jesus Himself says to Nicodemus, who came to Him. And Jesus says that entering the Kingdom of Heaven implies not some partial change in life, but a radical transformation — it is like dying and being born anew, accepting as the source of life not the flesh of one's parents, but the Spirit of God...

From the first verses of the 3rd chapter of John, we learn that unless one is born again, he will not enter the kingdom of God. And further Jesus explains what it means to be born again - "of water and the Spirit." That is, it is clear that He means baptism. So, being born again is baptism. Likewise, Paul in Romans 6 says that baptism is death and birth, and now we walk in newness of life. And in the epistle to Titus, Paul writes that we are saved by the "washing of regeneration." Does this mean, then, that baptism is necessary for our salvation? And not faith alone?

Faith is a necessary condition for salvation. But if it is not expressed in any way, then faith without works is dead, because it remains a purely theoretical conviction...

Why are the words “holy” or “truly” repeated multiple times in the Bible? Is this a feature of direct translation from Aramaic, which has its own grammatical peculiarities, or is there another reason?

“Truly, truly, I say to you…” — this is a rhetorical figure in the Aramaic language, used to strengthen semantic emphasis. It was incorporated without change into almost all translations of the Bible, because nearly all languages possess analogous rhetorical devices...

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