NOTES for Joh 3:8

Jesus uses the comparison of spirit with wind, a play on words in Aramaic: the spirit, like the wind, blows everywhere; one can feel its breath, but it is impossible to determine the beginning and end of this flow. Only the spirit knows the source and goal of its movement. Up to this point Jesus' thought and the image He uses are clear, but here He makes a sharp turn: "So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." How is it "so"? It appears He means that new life "not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit" (Rom. 8) is so different compared with ordinary life that from the outside it is incomprehensible where its beginning is and what its goal is.