8. Christ goes on to show how a difficulty in knowing the way in which the regeneration takes place is no proof of its impossibility, nor a reason for incredulity regarding its possibility. The sense of this verse depends upon the meaning given to the first “spirit,” τὸ πνεῦμα. Some understand this of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost acts in men according to His own good pleasure; “you hear His voice that cannot be mistaken—its power, its sweetness, the peace which it breathes, the light which it pours on you; but you cannot tell that He is approaching, or when He will come, or how He will work on your soul; _in such manner_ is it that everyone is born of the Spirit who is so born” (Coleridge, _Public Life of our Lord_, vol. i., page 262). Others understand the first spirit here of the wind; and this is the more common opinion among commentators. In this view, by means of a simple and obvious illustration from nature, Christ shows Nicodemus that he must believe in the possibility of this second birth, even though he know not the manner in which it takes place. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and you know not whence it cometh or whither it goeth: _so is it_ in regeneration; you are regenerated, though you cannot comprehend the process. That πνεῦμα sometimes means wind in Biblical Greek, is undeniable (see, _e.g._, Gen. vii. 1; Ps. civ. 4; Matt. xxiv. 31; Heb. i. 7), and the use of the word here in different senses is plain from the comparison (*so is it*, &c.), according to the patrons of this second opinion. Nor does the fact that it is preceded by the article here oblige us, according to these, to refer it to the Holy Ghost; for, just as in verse 5, without the article, it refers to the Holy Ghost, so here, with the article, it may not refer to Him. 9. Respondit Nicodemus, et 9. Nicodemus answered, and dixit ei: Quomodo possunt haec said to him: How can these fieri? things be done? 10. Respondit Iesus, et dixit 10. Jesus answered, and said ei: Tu es magister in Israel, to him: Art thou a master in et haec ignoras? Israel, and knowest not these things? 9, 10. Nicodemus again asks how these things can come to pass, and Jesus gently upbraids him for his ignorance. As one of the chief teachers of Israel ὁ διδάσκαλος(36) (see also vii. 45‐50), one of the seventy‐one members of the Sanhedrim, or supreme Council of the Jews, he should be familiar with the Sacred Scriptures, and ought to have read in them the promise of a spiritual regeneration. See Ezech. xxxvi. 25; Zach. xiii. 1. 11. Amen, amen, dico tibi, 11. Amen, amen I say to thee, quia quod scimus loquimur, et that we speak what we know, quod vidimus testamur, et and we testify what we have testimonium nostrum non seen, and you receive not our accipitis. testimony.