OT/NT Echoes

Nicodemus and Ezekiel

I admire some of YAF’s brothers and sisters. They love to study the Bible and are brave enough to consult English-Greek Interlinear bibles to catch what the English and Chinese translations have hidden. I am also encouraged by another group of brothers and sisters: those who have joined the 2005 Travel Through OT-NT Bible Reading Scheme. Every now and then, someone would come up to me and say proudly, “I’m keeping pace!” Therefore, I am dedicating this piece to these brothers and sisters, and to those who have a desire to read the Bible more richly. This is about listening in the conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus recorded in John 3, and hearing the reverberation between the OT and the NT.

In the NIV of John 3:3, the text says “born again.” But there is a footnote which says, “or born from above.” Indeed the original Greek word, anwqen, could be understood in these two ways. Even though Nicodemus understood it to be like having another physical birth, readers of this chapter do not have to follow him because they would remember John 1:13 has contrasted physical birth with “born of God,” to speak of those who have become children of God through belief in Jesus. With this background, we could more readily connect John 3:5 “born of water and spirit” to the Old Testament. But one may ask: why OT? Well, first of all, John 3:10 speaks of “teacher of Israel.” If it were not the OT, what else would a teacher of Israel teach? Further, to go to the OT is perhaps a natural reaction to the appearance of these familiar terms: “water,” “spirit,” “wind,” “Israel,” and “born of God.” If we realize that the Greek word behind “spirit” and “wind” is the same, pneuma(pneuma), then the connection to OT passages talking about the Spirit would be even obvious.

In the time of Jesus, the nation Israel was already subjected to Gentile rule for centuries. There was a strong aspiration for the deliverance by God and the re-establishment of the kingdom of David (God’s kingdom is brought up in John 3: 3 and 5). One of the key passages that the people of Israel always hang on for this hope was Ezekiel 36 and 37:

‘For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. (Ezekiel 36:24-27)

He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

I said, “O Sovereign LORD, you alone know.”

Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. . . Then you will know that I am the LORD.’” Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army. Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ . . . O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.’” (37:3-14)

24 ”‘My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd. (37:24)

How is it possible that a “teacher of Israel” can fail to listen from the words of Jesus, the echoes of Ezekiel? Does he not catch from the same Greek word pneuma(pneuma) that our translation says “spirit,” “wind,” “breath”? When these expressions are put together: “water,” “spirit,” “wind,” “breath,” “Israel,” “our bones dried up,” “come out from the graves,” and “and you shall live,” shouldn’t it all point to that the only ray of hope of the dead is from God, particularly in light of the repeated “you will know that I am the LORD”? Whose spirit could cause dead men to come out from the graves and live? Does it not say that the sole hope is to be “born of God” or “born from above”? Read with Ezekiel in mind, it is no wonder that it is only in John (11:44) that Lazarus’ resurrection is recorded: “and the dead man came out.” Where did he come out from? Ezekiel says: “Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them.”

Familiarity with the OT can help us to interpret the NT; reading NT will understand the prophecies of the OT. “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32)

(Pastor Raymond Chan, March 2005; from Carson, The Gospel According to John, 191-98)