Becoming a Proselyte (by Donna Dozier)
Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3 NASB
Born Again – ‘Born again’, in Greek anagennesas, is the expression that Dr. Skip Moen calls “The Evangelical Lynchpin” and says this is actually “a word that Peter made up.” It is found only in 1 Peter, and not in the John 3 accounts as Christians are often told. But Peter is coining a term that Yeshua and other Jews commonly used, a Hebrew idiom, ‘born from above.’ In his archived lecture, “Being Born Again,” Rabbi Gorelik remarks that although the expression is an idiom often used in Rabbinic literature, such as in the description of Israel at Mt. Sinai when they received the Torah, it is most often used describing the process of becoming a proselyte. The gentile would turn away from false gods, turn to the God of Israel, embrace the Torah, be circumcised if male, and male or female would go through waters of a mikvah, (be baptized). When they came up out of the water, it is said of them that they are ‘born again’ or ‘born from above.’ As a Pharisee, a member of the Sanhedrin, the ruling council, Nicodemus was shocked and responded by hyperbole, to which Yeshua replied, using a typical Jewish doublet – that he must be born of “water and the spirit.” (Gorelik, “Being Born Again”) From this you can see that Yeshua was instructing him to go back into the teachings of Moses, and love of the Torah and his God, with his whole heart like a new proselyte. This is precisely the opposite of what Christianity describes with this expression – moving new believers away from Torah, away from law, and ‘into grace.’ Friedman asks:
“Did the Messianic community observe the Torah in a grace-full manner? …I am asking if their Torah observance reflected the true personality of God, or did it pervert the character of God, who revealed himself to Moshe as a God of grace (see Exod. 20:6; 34:6; Num. 14:18)? Did their keeping of the mitzvot help bring people closer to God? The Hebrew concept of grace is most clearly reflected in a two-word Hebrew phrase, hen v’chesed. This phrase may best be translated as “grace that is tied to a covenant.” (Friedman 105-106)
Note how this following verse in Romans is so often misunderstood:
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. (Romans 10:4-5) NASB
Compare it with the same verse in the Complete Jewish Bible, more accurately translated based on the fact that Sha’ul was actually quoting this verse from Leviticus:
You are to observe my laws and rulings; if a person does them, he will have life through them. I am ADONAI. (Lev. 18:5) CJB
For the goal at which the Torah aims is the Messiah, who offers righteousness to everyone who trusts. For Moshe writes about the righteousness grounded in the Torah that the person who does these things will attain life through them. (Romans 10:4-5) CJB (quoting Lev. 18:5)
The proceeding from Donna Dozier, Losing Your Religion, pp. 45-47
[What does it mean, “to be born again”? Well, if you read the text as it would have been understood by Nicodemus, you realize that the discussion is about becoming a proselyte, not a Christian convert. Now what do you think about all those altar calls?]
Topical Index: John 3:3, born again, Donna Dozier
I woke up this morning thinking about the concept of ‘being born again’ and here you are with this article. Thank you for bringing clarity to Romans 10:4-5 and its source to the Torah.
It’s interesting that Yeshua was asking Nicodemus to become a proselyte. All this time many people believe they are, but as you noted, how close in character to God are they really? It’s one of the things that stops me cold; am I doing His Will, acting in His character, displaying His desire when I act? I just want the truth and the confidence to walk in it.
Well, I just googled “pagan sprinkling baptism” and got an eyeful! It does appear that the evangelical representation of baptism, whether infant or sprinkling or even immersion (depending on which denominated flavor) is being represented in almost identical terms as the same procedure was/is in pagan terms. If C. S. Lewis was right in asserting that paganism must be the “natural bent of the human mind”, no wonder it can be so easy to convince someone to be ‘born again’!
If, however, the Christian church were to represent being born again in terms of agreeing to a covenant relationship with the God of the Torah, and that the water had less to do with the ‘washing away of sin’, and more to do with agreeing to “keep the commandments of God AND the “faith of Jesus” (Revelation 14:12), (which, I believe, is HOW we get those sins to go away while we “work out our salvation with fear and trembling”); I wonder what the pew seats would be filled with?
Donna, thank you for your great article. It adds much to our ongoing conversations. In addition, I have an alternate view of the “born again” encounter with Nicodemus that I shared with Skip awhile back, but this is your arena and I won’t go further without your permission.
This is very helpful, and it fits in nicely with what Skip is saying in the Art of Discipline articles. Very interesting how the same idea ‘end’, ‘finish’,… and ‘goal’ – can mean the same thing when you are running a race, but complete opposite things when we apply these to the law. For anyone “in the know”, is this another example of translator bias?
Are there textual clues that would suggest ‘goal’ more than ‘end’?
Born Again is a physical change of the body not the mind. It’s when you’re no longer in flesh and blood but you are in your spiritual body. You must be born again to see the kingdom of heaven. The only one in history that was born again was Yeshua. We wont be born again until we are raised on the last day or are changed in the twinkling of an eye on the last day if we are alive. 1st Corinthians 15 explains it. Watch IOG bible lessons on you tube. He will break it down with scripture not interpretation. If flesh and blood can not enter into the kingdom of heaven and we have to be born of the spirit to see the kingdom how can we say that we are born again. I don’t see the kingdom do you? I can’t appear or disappear like Christ did after his change can you? Just as the wind blows remember? We hear the wind and see its effects but don’t see it. When we are born again we will be just like Christ. In a glorified body. Any questions go to israel of Gods website and look up the lesson born again.
If the Jews already knew what being “born from above” was and if that is what Jesus was referring to when He said “Unless one is born again” then Nicodemus should not have had a doubt on the procedure to be “born again”. Since he was a Pharisee he should be well versed in it. However we see that Nicodemus asks Jesus reveleaing his ignorance of the meaning of being born again
I think your missing the point. Nicodemus doesn’t ask about “being born again.” Check the Greek. Notice the use of the word in other places. He is asking about conception, not birth. And he’s confused about the spiritual connection of descent. Read my work on this verse in other places.