John 1:13 – Cherev

Verse 13 Greek

1:13οἳ οὐκ ἐξ αἱμάτων οὐδὲ ἐκ θελήματος σαρκὸς οὐδὲ ἐκ θελήματος ἀνδρὸς ἀλλ’ ἐκ θεοῦ ἐγεννήθησαν.

Verse 13 Sentence Flow

ἐγεννήθησαν - Aorist, Passive, Indicative, Third Person, Plural, γεννάω = were born
  οἳ - relative pronoun, subject, antecedent is the believing ones = who
  οὐκ - adverb, negative particle
    ἐξ - preposition of means = of
      αἱμάτων - NGNP = blood (lineage)
    οὐδὲ - negative disjunctive conjunction = nor
        ἐκ - preposition of means = of
        θελήματος - NGNS, object of the preposition = will
            σαρκὸς - NGFS, partitive genitive = flesh (desire of natural man)
    οὐδὲ - negative disjunctive conjunction = nor
        ἐκ - preposition of means = of
        θελήματος - NGNS, object of the preposition = will
            ἀνδρὸς - NGMS, partitive genitive = man, husband (patriarchal desire)
    ἀλλ’ - adversative conjunction = but
        ἐκ - preposition of agency = of
        θεοῦ - NGMS, object of the preposition = God (Desire of God)

Verse 13 Translation Rationale

Verse 13 opens with the relative pronoun οἳ. As is good practice, this leads us to search for the antecedent. In this case, the antecedent is those mentioned in verse 12 — “as many as received Him, the believing ones in His name.” Therefore, this relative pronoun is appositional to the group of people to which it refers. οἳ is also the subject of the aorist verb ἐγεννήθησαν. Translating this pair we get “who were born.” An important distinction in this context is to understand that ἐγεννήθησαν isn’t referring to being physically born. In verse 12, to which the subject of this verb is appositional, we see that the context is spiritual birth (He gave the ability to become children of God). Becoming children of God is an act of regeneration, not physical birth.

Next we come to the negative adverb οὐκ which is modifying ἐγεννήθησαν. To update our translation including the adverb we get “who were not born.” John now lists the methods by which one is not born again/regenerated. The list begins with ἐξ αἱμάτων. We translate ἐξ as “of, out of, from” and this preposition will be translated the same way all four times it appears in this passage. A note, ἐκ and ἐξ are the same word in different forms. In this context, I think the clearest rendering is “from.” I have taken this preposition to be a preposition of means in the first three occurrences. The final occurrence, as noted in the sentence flow, is taken as a preposition of agency. To conclude the first prepositional phrase we translate αἱμάτων as “blood.” So to put together the pieces up to this point we have “who were born not from blood.” In this negation John most likely means that one is not made a child of God because of their lineage. Paul explains the identical idea in Romans 4.

In the next list item we find John negating another method for being born again and this time it’s the human will, or will of the flesh. οὐδὲ is a negative particle similar to οὐκ in the first portion of the except it’s a negative conjunction. Probably the clearest way to translate this word for the context and current English understanding would be “nor.” οὐδὲ is followed by ἐκ which we covered above — it will be translated as from. θελήματος is the word for will/desire and is the object of the preposition ἐκ. θελήματος is modified by σαρκὸς and I’m taking σαρκὸς as a partitive¹ genitive. Our translation is “nor from the will/desire of the flesh.” Now here we have a bit of a debate in Christendom. Some take this to mean a sexual desire of the flesh. However, given the subject and the context that seems somewhat out of reach to me. John knows of that which he writes and therefore it would be nonsensical for him to discuss that one could become a child of God by sexual desire. Rather, perhaps a more sensible meaning here, is “not from the will/desire of natural man.”

In the next negation we begin with three words that have already been covered which are οὐδὲ ἐκ θελήματος, “nor from the will/desire.” Here we have θελήματος being modified by ἀνδρὸς. As above, I take this to be a partitive genitive. Interestingly, if John intended to just to make this mean “will of man” he likely would have used ἄνθρωπος. However, he instead used ἀνδρὸς which denotes a man/husband. As such, it would seem to be a wise choice to infer that John means “nor the desire of a husband.” By desire of a husband, I take this to mean a desire for one’s child to inherit a being born again. That would mean that being a child of God is not according to the desire of the husband (familial authority). No matter how much a man/husband wants his child to be a child of God, that desire cannot make a child become a child of God. Children of God don’t become so by the will of their parents.

Finally, we reach the final item in the list and it begins with the adversative conjunction ἀλλ’ which is translated as but. Adversatives form contrasts. Therefore, up until this point, each item has addressed a way in which someone doesn’t become a child of God. Not by lineage, not by desire of natural man, not by the desire of one’s parents, “but from God.” It is God who makes a person a child of God. It is according to the will of God. I take θεοῦ to be a genitive of agency.

Verse 13 English Translation

who were born not from blood, nor from the will of the flesh (natural man), nor from the will of a husband, but of God.

Verse 13 Interpretive Questions

No questions

References

Blass, Friedrich, Albert Debrunner, and Robert Walter Funk. A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961, 91. ↩︎