Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
The wind, etc.—Breath and spirit (one word both in Hebrew and Greek) are constantly brought together in Scripture as analogous (Job 27:3; Job 33:4; Ezekiel 37:9-14).
canst not tell, etc.—The laws which govern the motion of the winds are even yet but partially discovered; but the risings, failings, and change in direction many times in a day, of those gentle breezes here referred to, will probably ever be a mystery to us: So of the operation of the Holy Ghost in the new birth.
That which is born, etc.—A great universal proposition; "That which is begotten carries within itself the nature of that which begat it" [OLSHAUSEN].
flesh—Not the mere material body, but all that comes into the world by birth, the entire man; yet not humanity simply, but in its corrupted, depraved condition, in complete subjection to the law of the fall (Romans 8:1-9). So that though a man "could enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born," he would be no nearer this "new birth" than before (Job 14:4; Psalms 51:5).
is spirit—"partakes of and possesses His spiritual nature."
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing John 3:8:
Job 9:11
Ecclesiastes 11:5
Song of Solomon 2:9
Song of Solomon 3:4
Song of Solomon 4:16
Song of Solomon 6:12
Matthew 10:41
Acts 2:2
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