![]() ![]() Not only were nouns, verbs and prepositions indicated, but also case, gender, person and number. The entire Greek text was then printed out and a "grammatical tag" was placed under each word to show what part of speech it was. To explain it simply, they put the Greek text of our New Testament into a computer and asked it to do a grammatical analysis. It was compiled by Timothy and Barbara Friberg. The Analytical Greek New Testament was published in 1981 by Baker Book House. The Greek word "kai" (and, dp) is a conjunction and is sometimes translated "even." For example, in Luke 10:17 we read, "Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, "'Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name.'" But is this the way it should be translated in John 3:5? I checked 18 different translations of John 3:5 and could not find anyone who rendered this verse as "water even Spirit." Many of these translations were produced by Baptists and used in their colleges. He said, "I think the simplest and most accurate rendering would be 'Except a man be born of water' and take the word 'kai' (and) to mean 'even,' so it would read, 'Except a man be born of water, even the Spirit.' And that puts the Spirit in apposition with water, meaning the same thing." "And" Or "Even"? My opponent, Gerald Smith of Lexington, Kentucky, tried to "drain" the water out of this verse by claiming "water" and "Spirit" referred to the same element. Several years ago, in my first debate with a Baptist preacher, I used this passage as one of my affirmative arguments. Maybe it is the word "Spirit" that scares some people off. In John 3:5 Jesus told Nicodemus, "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." There is one birth under discussion in this passage and it consists of two parts: water and Spirit. I am afraid John 3:5 falls into this last category. Yet, there are other verses which teach the same thing and we sometimes shy away from using them. We use verses like Mark 16:16 and Acts 2:38 frequently in our preaching because they are so simple to understand. Many passages in the New Testament plainly demonstrate the necessity of water baptism is for (in order to obtain) the remission of sins. ![]()
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