Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and don’t understand these things?
Parallel Translations
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Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and don’t understand these things?
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Iesus answered and sayde vnto him: arte thou a master in Israel and knowest not these thinges?
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Iesus answered, and saide vnto him, Art thou a teacher of Israel, and knowest not these things?
Cross-references (23)
Passages linked to John 3:10 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Matthew 22:29 But Jesus answered them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.
- Jeremiah 8:8-9 “ ‘How do you say, “We are wise, and Yahweh’s law is with us?” But, behold, the false pen of the scribes has made that a lie. The wise men are disappointed. They are dismayed and trapped. Behold, they have rejected Yahweh’s word. What kind of wisdom is in them?
- Ezekiel 11:19 I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh;
- Matthew 15:14 Leave them alone. They are blind guides of the blind. If the blind guide the blind, both will fall into a pit.”
- Psalms 51:6 Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts. You teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
- Psalms 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me.
- Psalms 73:1 Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.
- Ezekiel 36:25-27 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness, and from all your idols. I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes. You will keep my ordinances and do them.
- Deuteronomy 10:16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked.
- Deuteronomy 30:6 Yahweh your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your offspring, to love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
- 1 Chronicles 29:19 and give to Solomon my son a perfect heart, to keep your commandments, your testimonies, and your statutes, and to do all these things, and to build the palace, for which I have made provision.”
- Isaiah 9:16 For those who lead this people lead them astray; and those who are led by them are destroyed.
- Isaiah 11:6-9 The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, the calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf together; and a little child will lead them. The cow and the bear will graze. Their young ones will lie down together. The lion will eat straw like the ox. The nursing child will play near a cobra’s hole, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den. They will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of Yahweh, as the waters cover the sea.
- Isaiah 29:10-12 For Yahweh has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, the prophets; and he has covered your heads, the seers. All vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is educated, saying, “Read this, please;” and he says, “I can’t, for it is sealed;” and the book is delivered to one who is not educated, saying, “Read this, please;” and he says, “I can’t read.”
- Isaiah 56:10 His watchmen are blind. They are all without knowledge. They are all mute dogs. They can’t bark— dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber.
- Isaiah 66:7-9 “Before she travailed, she gave birth. Before her pain came, she delivered a son. Who has heard of such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion travailed, she gave birth to her children. Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to be delivered?” says Yahweh. “Shall I who cause to give birth shut the womb?” says your God.
- Jeremiah 31:33 “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” says Yahweh: “I will put my law in their inward parts, and I will write it in their heart. I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
- Jeremiah 32:39-40 I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their good, and the good of their children after them. I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from following them, to do them good. I will put my fear in their hearts, that they may not depart from me.
- Ezekiel 18:31-32 Cast away from you all your transgressions, in which you have transgressed; and make yourself a new heart and a new spirit: for why will you die, house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him who dies,” says the Lord Yahweh. “Therefore turn yourselves, and live!
- Ezekiel 37:23-24 They won’t defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but I will save them out of all their dwelling places, in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. So they will be my people, and I will be their God. “ ‘ “My servant David will be king over them. They all will have one shepherd. They will also walk in my ordinances, and observe my statutes, and do them.
- Matthew 11:25 At that time, Jesus answered, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to infants.
- Romans 2:28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh;
- Philippians 3:3 For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh;
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (15 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 10. Thou art a teacher of Israel. As Christ…
10. Thou art a teacher of Israel. As Christ sees that he is spending his time and pains to no purpose in teaching so proud a man, he begins to reprove him sharply. And certainly such persons will never make any progress, until the wicked confidence, with which they are puffed up, be removed. This is, very properly, placed first in order; for in the very matter in which he chiefly plumes himself on his acuteness and sagacity, Christ censures his ignorance. He thought, that not to admit a thing to be possible would be considered a proof of gravity and intelligence, because that man is accounted foolishly credulous who assents to what is told him by another, before he has fully inquired into the reason. But still Nicodemus, with all his magisterial haughtiness, exposes himself to ridicule by more than childish hesitation about the first principles. Such hesitation, certainly, is base and shameful. For what religion have we, what knowledge of God, what rule of living well, what hope of eternal life, if we do not believe that man is renewed by the Spirit of God? There is an emphasis, therefore, in the word these; for since Scripture frequently repeats this part of doctrine, it ought not to be unknown even to the lowest class of beginners. It is utterly beyond endurance that any man should be ignorant and unskilled in it, who professes to be a teacher in the Church of God.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 10 Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou…
10 Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
Ver. 10. Art thou a master, &c.] The Pharisees and philosophers, for their learning, are called "princes of this world," 1Co 2:8. And yet, had they known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. Indocti rapiunt coelum, &c. The poor are gospelized, {ευαγγελιζονται, Mat 11:5} not only receive it, but are changed by it. But Bellarmine cannot find in all the Bible where remission of sin is promised to such as confess their sins to God; Promissio de remittendis peccatis eis qui confitentur Deo non videtur ulla extare in divinis literis. (Bell. de Justif. i. 21.)
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And knowest not these things] Carolostadius was eight years doctor when he began to read the Scriptures, whereof he had very little understanding; and yet at the taking of his degree he had been pronounced sufficientissimus.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Our Saviour doth not so much wonder at as…
Our Saviour doth not so much wonder at as upbraid the ignorance of Nicodemus, and all of his sect, who went for masters, or teachers, and that in Israel; who had the law and the prophets, and yet were ignorant of those things which were necessary to be known to every ordinary person’s salvation. Will any say, But where was there any thing spoken in the books of the law and the prophets about regeneration, or a being born again?
Answer. What other things could be meant by the circumcision of the heart, commanded by Moses, Deu 10:16, promised in Deu 30:6; by the new heart, and the new spirit, promised Eze 36:26; by the clean heart prayed for by David, Psa 51:10? A teacher in Israel should from hence have understood the necessity of a new and of a clean heart; but the whole sect of the Pharisees were so taken up with the trifles of the rites and traditions, and the works of the law, that as to these spiritual things of nearer and much higher concernment to people’s souls, they knew and spake little of them.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak that…
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak that we do know,.... Meaning either himself, and John the Baptist his forerunner, who preached the same doctrine of regeneration, internal sanctification, and evangelical repentance, as well as outward reformation, as necessary to entrance into the kingdom of heaven, or the Gospel dispensation, he declared was just at hand; or his disciples with himself, who were now with him, and whom he had called to preach the same truths he himself did; or the prophets of the Old Testament, who agreed with him in these things; or the Father that was with him, and never left him alone, and the Holy Spirit that was upon him, by whom he was anointed to preach these things, and who spoke them in him; or else he may use the plural number of himself alone, as being one in authority, and speaking with it, as he sometimes did, Mar 4:30, and the rather this seems to be the sense, since he immediately, in the next verse, speaks in the singular number, "if I have told you earthly things", &c. Now Christ must needs thoroughly, and certainly know what he spoke, since he was not only the omniscient God, but, as Mediator, had all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in him, and the spirit of wisdom and knowledge rested on him:
and testify that we have seen; and therefore ought to have been received as a credible witness, as he was a faithful one; since "seeing" and "knowing" are qualifications in a witness, Lev 5:1; and though these were eminently in Christ, the generality of the Jews gave no credit to his testimony:
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and ye received not our witness; which was an aggravation of their sin and unbelief; see Joh 3:32.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 10. Art thou a master of Israel, c.]…
Verse 10. Art thou a master of Israel, c.] Hast thou taken upon thee to guide the blind into the way of truth and yet knowest not that truth thyself? Dost thou command proselytes to be baptized with water, as an emblem of a new birth; and art thou unacquainted with the cause, necessity, nature, and effects of that new birth? How many masters are there still in Israel who are in this respect deplorably ignorant; and, strange to tell, publish their ignorance and folly in the sight of the sun, by writing and speaking against the thing itself! It is strange that such people cannot keep their own secret.
"But water baptism is this new birth." No. Jesus tells you, a man must be born of water and the Spirit; and the water, and its effects upon the body, differ as much from this Spirit, which it is intended to represent, and the effects produced in the soul, as real fire does from painted flame.
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"But I am taught to believe that this baptism is regeneration." Then you are taught to believe a falsity. The Church of England, in which perhaps you are a teacher or a member, asks the following questions, and returns the subjoined answers.
"Q. How many sacraments hath Christ ordained in his Church?" "A. Two only, as generally necessary to salvation, that is to say, baptism and the supper of the Lord."
"Q. How many parts are there in a sacrament?" "A. Two. The outward visible sign, and the inward spiritual grace."
"Q. What is the outward visible sign, or form, in baptism?" "A. Water, wherein the person is baptized, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."
"Q. What is the inward and spiritual grace?" "A. A death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness; for being by nature born in sin, and the children of wrath, we are hereby made the children of grace."
Now, I ask, Whereby are such persons made the children of grace? Not by the water, but by the death unto sin, and the new birth unto righteousness: i.e. through the agency of the Holy Ghost, sin is destroyed, and the soul filled with holiness.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain A master of Israel - A “teacher” of Israel;…
A master of Israel - A “teacher” of Israel; the same word that in the second verse is translated “teacher.” As such a teacher he ought to have understood this doctrine. It was not new,” but was clearly taught in the Old Testament. See particularly Psa 51:10, Psa 51:16-17; Eze 11:19; Eze 36:26. It may seem surprising that a man whose business it was to teach the people should be a stranger to so plain and important a doctrine; but when worldly-minded men are placed in offices of religion when they seek those offices for the sake of ease or reputation, it is no wonder that they are strangers to the plain truths of the Bible; and there have been many, and there are still, who are in the ministry itself, to whom the plainest doctrines of the gospel are obscure. No man can understand the Bible fully unless he is a humble Christian, and the easiest way to comprehend the truths of religion is to give the heart to God and live to his glory. A child thus may have more real knowledge of the way of salvation than many who are pretended masters and teachers of Israel, Joh 7:17; Mat 11:25; Psa 8:2, compared with Mat 21:16.
Of Israel - Of the Jews; of the Jewish nation.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain And knoweth not these things. That is, of baptism…
And knoweth not these things. That is, of baptism given by in a visible manner, and you understand not, how will you comprehend greater and heavenly things, if I speak of them? (Witham) --- Many passages, both in the law and the prophets, implied this doctrine of regeneration; for what else can be the meaning of the circumcision of the heart, commanded by Moses; (Deuteronomy x. 16.) of the renewal of a clean and right spirit, prayed for by David; (Psalm 1.) of God’s giving his people a new heart and a new spirit. (Ezechiel xxxvi. 26, &c.) But the Pharisees, taken up with their rites and traditions, paid little attention to spiritual things of greater moment.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain master--"teacher." The question clearly implies that the doctrine of…
master--"teacher." The question clearly implies that the doctrine of regeneration is so far disclosed in the Old Testament that Nicodemus was culpable in being ignorant of it. Nor is it merely as something that should be experienced under the Gospel that the Old Testament holds it forth--as many distinguished critics allege, denying that there was any such thing as regeneration before Christ. For our Lord's proposition is universal, that no fallen man is or can be spiritual without a regenerating operation of the Holy Ghost, and the necessity of a spiritual obedience under whatever name, in opposition to mere mechanical services, is proclaimed throughout all the Old Testament.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 10. Knowest not these things?—Jesus here affirms all that…
10. Knowest not these things?—Jesus here affirms all that rationalists claim; namely, that, both as a reader of the Old Testament and a rabbi, Nicodemus ought to have known better than to put a bodily construction on the Lord’s words. He implies such an inconsistency to be surprising, and yet strange to say, evangelical commentators, (as Alford, Tholuck, and Lange,) in compliment to their objectors, explain away Nicodemus’s inconsistency, and show that there is nothing surprising about it! That a man may be, in a period of religious declension, as ignorant as Nicodemus on this deep subject, even under a brighter dispensation, and with this third chapter of John to instruct him, may be illustrated by the following passage from the Life of Summerfield, p. 350: “During one of his illnesses he was visited by two highly respectable clergymen, one of whom inquired, ‘How old are you?’ The suffering saint replied, ‘I was born at Preston, in England, in 1798, and born again at Dublin, in Ireland, in 1817.’ The visitor expressed at once his surprise and curiosity at what, to him, was so strange a declaration. Mr. Summerfield rejoined, in the language of Jesus to Nicodemus, ‘Art thou a master in Israel, and knowest not these things?’ and then related to him the history of his own conversion.” The reverend gentleman, after departing, inquired of his clerical companion whether or not he knew anything about this strange doctrine; and finding that he too was the subject of the same happy change, sought and obtained the like blessing.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 10. Art thou a master of Israel] Better, art…
10. Art thou a master of Israel] Better, art thou the teacher of Israel, the well-known Rabbi, a representative of the supreme authority in the Church?
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (10) Art thou a master of Israel?—Better, Art thou…
(10) Art thou a master of Israel?—Better, Art thou the teacher of Israel? The article is emphatic, and points to the position of Nicodemus as a teacher of repute—“the well-known teacher;” or possibly it is to be understood of the Sanhedrin as represented by him—“Is this the teaching of Israel?” There is something of just indignation here, as everywhere when the words of Jesus Christ are addressed to the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. “You who teach others, have you need to learn the very first lessons of true religion? You who claim to loose and bind men, and place heavy burdens on them which they cannot bear, are you without the simplest real knowledge of what God is, or of what man is? Do teachers of Israel know not these things when they lie beneath every page of the Old Testament Scriptures?”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Jesus answered and said to him, Art thou the…
Jesus answered and said to him, Art thou the teacher of Israel, and perceivest thou not these things? The term "Israel" is used four times by John. (Joh_1:31, 49 12:13; and here) In each place the high dignity, calling, and glory of the nation chosen for the loftiest privilege and destiny are involved. Notice the article, "the Israel" of God. The article before didaskalov gives a high distinction to Nicodemus. Schottgen and Lucke suppose some special office to be here referred to, either the president of the Sanhedrin, or the hakim, or chakam, "the wise man," who sat on his left in the public sessions, or the "father of the house of judgment," who sat on his right; but it may simply mean the teacher of Israel, who has come to me in representative fashion, and who is reminded that he should have been more intimately acquainted with the teaching of his own sacred books (Farrar, "Life of Christ," p. 153). Without doubt, the fact of human corruption, and the power of the Spirit of God to renovate, to change utterly down to the very core and heart of human nature, is a great dogma of the Old Testament. (cf. Deu_10:16 Deu_30:6 1Sa_10:9, where God gave Saul another heart; 1Sa_16:13, the effect upon David; David"s own prayer, Psa_51:10; and the great promises of God by Eze_11:19 Eze_18:31 Eze_36:26 Jer_4:4 Jer_31:33) Nicodemus, an illustrious man, a teacher of ethers, presumably acquainted with the teaching of the Scriptures, need not have been in such doubt and amazement at the searching words of Jesus.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not…
Joh_3:10
Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
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--The truths which Christ came to declare, He did but recall in great measure to minds which had lost the memory of what was from the first.
I. THE NEED OF SPIRITUAL CIRCUMCISION, CLEANSING OR RENEWAL OF THE HEART, WAS NO NEW DOCTRINE OF CHRIST (see Deu_10:16, 1Sa_10:9; Psa_51:10; Jer_31:33; Eze_11:19).
II. THE COMING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AND HIS PRESENCE IN MANS HEART HAD BEEN FORETOLD BY THE PROPHETS (Eze_36:25-27).
III. HENCE THE IGNORANCE OF THIS DISTINGUISHED TEACHER WAS INEXCUSABLE. (W. Denton, M. A.)
The doctrine of the new birth was according to Jesus exhibited in the Old Testament.
I. THE DOCTRINE OF THE FALL IMPLIES IT, especially when viewed in connection with the Divine purity and holiness as the only moral standard for humanity (Gen_17:1; Exo_22:31; Lev_11:44; Psa_24:3-4; Isa_35:8).
II. CIRCUMCISION OF THE HEART WAS AN INDISPENSABLE QUALIFICATION for serving God (Deu_10:16; Deu_30:6), which was symbolized by circumcision (Rom_2:29) as it is now by baptism (1Pe_3:21).
III. It was PREFIGURED IN THE CHANGE OF HEART CONFERRED on Saul and 1Sa_10:9; 1Sa_16:13).
IV. It was RECOGNIZED IN DAVIDS PRAYER FOR PURITY (Psa_51:10).
V. It was EXPRESSLY PROMISED AS A MESSIANIC BLESSING (Eze_11:19; Eze_18:31; Eze_36:26; Jer_4:4; Jer_31:33).
VI. EVEN THE TERM REGENERATION WAS NOT UNKNOWN (Job_11:12; Psa_37:25).
The reasonableness of regeneration
What phraseology was more familiar with the infidel revolutionists of France than the regeneration of their country? And is the idea of a regenerated individual an extravagant one, to be sneered at, when that of a regenerated nation is one to be treated with respect? Yea, infidel speculators will discourse of a regenerated world, and yet make sport to themselves of our faith, as if it were fantastic and visionary, when we speak of the regeneration of a single man! How is it that, being such masters in philosophy and politics, they know not these things? (W. Anderson, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 10. Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest…
10. Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? The question implies that Nicodemus was one of the doctors of the law. These made very arrogant claims of superior knowledge.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain a master
a master
Lit. Art thou the teacher of Israel, etc.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.