Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: davidbu@loowit.wr.tek.com (David E. Buxton) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Born Again Message-ID: Date: 21 Apr 91 04:34:10 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Lines: 23 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu I just received some email from a Jewish friend. He offered several paragraphs that I thought were quite stunning. We were talking about the Covenants and Priesthoods. He was explaining about Hebrew names, telling me what happens when a Gentile converts to Judaism. He says it is quite popular to say that a convert to Judaism is being born again. This being born again into Judaism means that from then on they are considered to be of the lineage of Abraham, that Abraham is now their father, Abraham being considered the first Jew. So, if this was a popular semantic among Jews when Jesus was talking to Nicodemus, then what did Jesus mean when He used the semantic? To become a Jew you were seen as being born again, born into the lineage of Abraham. To be born again, as Jesus put it, meant to be "born from above", which is a legitimate translation of the Greek. To non Jews, Jesus spoke of becoming of the lineage of Abraham. Paul speaks of becoming joint heirs of the promises. To Jews Jesus spoke of another re-birth, a re-birth into Christianity. So in Christianity, as spiritual Jews we are born into Abraham and also born into Christ. In a sense we have two fathers, the father of Old Covenant promises and the father of New Covenant promises. Dave (David E. Buxton)