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What is Aramaic meaning of born again?
#1
Obviously there must be some sort of idiom here, as nobody can be literally born again right? So what is the idiom? Is it something miraculous and spiritual? Or is it all mental, where you decide, YES, I will change, I will stop lying, stealing etc and actually practice it?

Thanks in advance for the answers,

Rich
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#2
Shlama Akhi Rich,

Lamsa wrote that "born again" was a "northern Galilean Idiom", something along the lines showing repentance. He points out that Nicodemus spoke a southern Aramaic dialect and did not understand the figure of speech that was unique to Y'shua's Aramaic dialect.

Now, whether Lamsa is correct or not, in this case, the plain meaning of both the Aramaic and the Greek texts gives us the answer. Nicodemus want to know if a man can enter his mother's womb a second time, and Y'shua answers:

"That which is flesh is give birth to flesh and that which is spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying that you must be born again. The wind blows wherever it pleases, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the spirit."

John 3:5-8

If Aramaic can help a little, I suppose it is in pointing out that WIND and SPIRIT are the same word, as they are in Hebrew, and a similar terminology exists in Genesis 1:2.

So, for myself, being "born again" points to a birth of the Holy Spirit coming down and dwelling inside us, so that we are given birth of the spirit. And because we are talking RUACH (spirt and wind) we do no know where it comes from or where it is going, but it also through the virgin birth brings forth (and therefore is likened to) the Son of Man, Y'shua the Messiah. A similar idea is also found in Isaiah 11:1-2, presaging the birth of Messiah, and this is also why Y'shua, referring to Tanakh, expected Nicodemus to understand because he was also a Torah teacher.

We are born the first time into flesh and sin and then born again into the way of the Spirit of the Living Word, and also to receive the inheritance of sons, as we are told elsewhere in the NT, Galatians I think.

Another way to think of it I guess is with the living water teachings in John 4. Y'shua talks of himself as havig living water that wells up as a spring to eternal life. The regular water leads to thrist and eventually death. I think the same is true of of wind. You have the regular wind that breathes in and out of a man and then the man dies. And then LIVING WIND (or Holy Spirit, again same word) that opens the way to eternal life

Hope this helps a little.
Shlama w'burkate
Andrew Gabriel Roth
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#3
Quote:Obviously there must be some sort of idiom here, as nobody can be literally born again right?

Wrong.

It was not an idiom or a symbology expressed by our Lord, it was a commandment and the first step towards the path of living in The Spirit, the regeneration, the renewel of the spirit within a person. This path was paid for by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, His pure blood alone paid for this to all who would simply ask from Him to be in their heart.

Nothing else grants you access to the throne of The Almighty. No belief, no culture, nothing. You could talk about it all you want all your life but if you do not ask for this, you will not have a spiritual walk with The Lord. Your form of Christianity will be carnal and without the true wisdom and spiritual discernment from above.

Rather than try to make up some sort of explanation for you from a language, I'll explain what I did to receive so that you can approach The Lord and ask Him to recieve also.

I looked upward with my eyes open one night. I then spoke openly to Him and asked Him to forgive me and my life the way it was and to come into my heart and stay with me forever. This was my faith in action, I openly confessed from my lips the desire to leave my life I was born with and to have the new life from Him.

It starts within the heart of the person and continues on from there. The rebirth is a tangible, felt, experience. You will feel completely new inside, like a newborn babe. Your old desires will start to be removed from that day onward. At that point, you can legitimately call yourself a Christian because you have received the first step of the Spirit-filled life.

Someone else will notice that you have done this also, the being that you belonged to from your fleshly birth, can you guess who that is? Believe me, he won't be happy and he will make sure he lets you know about it.

Suddenly you are aware of your surroundings more than you were before, and people are aware of you also. The spiritual presence you have will irritate people around you who are not born again. It will fade after a period of time, but the initial rebirth has a dramatic presence from a person, a cleansing ability, and believe me, the unregenerate do not like it.

You now will desire to read the bible. When you read, you will feel the words feed your soul, like a strength.

The hardest part for any new Christian is to refrain from being led into the wrong environments and the churches that do not feed that person, who teach wrong doctrine. You are now different than the people you grew up with and you can never forget that. There is no turning back, but you would not want to.

If you do take the steps to receive the new life from our High Priest, then maybe you will go ahead and follow the next steps of baptism, and then ask for the indwelling of The Spirit with the follow on of the gifts that that come from that experience.

You could just stay in one place with your rebirth and not go any farther than that, but The Almighty did leave a path for anyone to climb, if they was to choose to do so. The biggest thing for any born-again Christian is to reach for the indwelling Spirit. With Him placed in your life you will not feel alone whatsoever. This is the Comforter. You will have this greater strength within your soul that is a loving power beyond anything a person could offer here on earth.

With Him placed within your soul, the written word takes on an understanding beyond the literal writings. To the point of seeing the imprint behind the written letters. Your wisdom and knowledge will expand beyond what you thought possible. You no longer view things just on a worldly level, you now reach outward and upward in your views and desires every day in prayer to say hi to your heavenly father now.

Independance is a great strength in some of the newborn Christians also( is for me, very strong I must say).

Anyways, that is not it in a nutshell. It is just a small bit of the experience. Wait till Jesus introduces you to Father,.......you think you understand love? We know nothing. Brings tears of joy to your eyes. You desire nothing more than to be closer to HIM from that point onward. His fragrance is amazing.

If you really want to experience this but feel you do not have the faith to truly reach up and receive, then send me a PM with you first name and I will pray for you.

Knowledge is nothing unless it is passed on, so I pass on what I know to you. I have no need to argue any single point in this with anyone. My experience is mine and I know what I know what I know what I know. If you have no experience even remotely similar to what I have just explained, then I would have no choice but to completely dought your Christianity and your purpose. To just believe in your mind is not good enough. It is with that much conviction.

The path is there. Very few choose it, and most churches refuse to teach it now. Such is mankind and the world held in it's grip by satan.
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#4
I think the best thing is to catch the spirit of the context.
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#5
Arnold Fruchtenbaum has explained that in the Jewish world of the day there were several ways a man could be born again
Bar Mitzva
becoming a rabbi
being married
becoming a very senior scholar of the house of Israel

Jesus is playing a teasing game with Nicodemus for very high stakes in the same way as aramaic word plays are pointed out here show him to use humour

He is saying Nic Nic yer goin' ter have to be born *again*
so

Nic hold hard
I've already been born again every which way i can be with out going back to stage 1
ie he is teasing Jesus back

then Jesus goes from humour to a big punchlines v 10 and v 12


the kingdom of God is not seen with human understanding

Nicodemus asks a human question - are you a prophet and Jesus answers
with a much deeper one

a new change of life as deep if not more so than the ones you have already experiencd is necessary for you to see the kingdom of God

then there is all that wind stuff
jesus is using the language of paradigm shift

he is talking about a different paradigm in diff paradigm language

v 3:11 Jesus is saying to him in a way he will recognise that he is God Iam the Iam

In other words the exchange goes

N Are you a prophet?
J I want to open up a new world and a new way and I am
N I kinda see it but I don't understand it
J Be careful this is new and scary but it is not negotiable - get with the programme cos you have just been given a great deal and a lot will be expected of you

How many ways can I try to write this and still fail to comprehend my own responsibility?

In him Christ everything is different
and everything I hold dear
everything I work towards
and every instinct I have to do things in the way I know
ought to be transformed
how can I be so weak that Christ is formed in me
and the new world opened and danced
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