Skip to main content

John 3:9

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

KJV

ἀπεκρίθη Νικόδημος καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ· πῶς δύναται ταῦτα γενέσθαι;

Greek NT

Respondit Nicodemus, et dixit ei : Quomodo possunt hæc fieri ?

Vulgate

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

ASV

Nicodemus answered and said to him: How can these things be done?

Douay-Rheims

Open in reader with connections →

In the original Greek

9 distinct Greek words appear in this verse.

Νικόδημος
nikodemos
noun · 5×
αὐτός
autos
pronoun · 5564×
γίνομαι
ginomai
verb · 667×
δύναμαι
dunamai
verb · 209×
καί
kai
conjunction · 8973×
λέγω
lego
verb · 2256×
οὗτος
outos
demonstrative · 1380×
πῶς
pos
adverb · 104×
ἀποκρίνομαι
apokrinomai
verb · 233×

Historic Christian voices

4 passages from patristic writers, Reformers, and church catechisms citing this verse.

§505By his virginal conception, Jesus, the New Adam, ushers in the new birth of children adopted in the Holy Spirit through faith. "How can this be?"165 Participation in the divine life arises "not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God".166 The acceptance of this life is virginal because it is entirely the Spirit's gift to man. the spousal charact…

Cross-references

  • Isa 42:16 — And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do
  • John 3:4 — Nicodemus 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?
  • John 6:52 — The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?
  • John 6:60 — Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?
  • John 7:36 — What manner of saying is this that he said, Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come?
  • John 14:22 — Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?
  • Luke 1:34 — Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?
  • Mark 8:24 — And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking.
  • Prov 4:18 — But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.