The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
Parallel translations
- WEB The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but don’t know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
- KJV The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
- NKJV The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
- NASB The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it is coming from and where it is going; so is everyone who has been born of the Spirit.”
- NLT The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Jesus compares the Spirit to the wind: real and effective, yet beyond our control or full comprehension. So is everyone born of the Spirit.
Overview
The same word means both 'wind' and 'Spirit' in Greek, making Jesus' analogy vivid. We perceive the wind's effects without mastering its source or direction, and likewise the Spirit's regenerating work is sovereign and mysterious yet evident in its fruit. The new birth is therefore God's free, sovereign act, not something humans manufacture or fully explain.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Eccl 11:4–5He who watches the wind will fail to sow, and he who observes the clouds will fail to reap.
- 1 Cor 2:11For who among men knows the thoughts of man except his own spirit within him? So too, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
- Acts 2:2Suddenly a sound like a mighty rushing wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.
- Ezek 37:9Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and tell the breath that this is what the Lord GOD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, so that they may live!”
- 1 Jn 2:29If you know that He is righteous, you also know that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of Him.
- Mark 4:26–29Jesus also said, “The kingdom of God is like a man who scatters seed on the ground.
- Acts 4:31After they had prayed, their meeting place was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
- John 1:13children born not of blood, nor of the desire or will of man, but born of God.
- 1 Cor 12:11All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, who apportions them to each one as He determines.
- Job 37:21–23Now no one can gaze at the sun when it is bright in the skies after the wind has swept them clean.
- Job 37:16–17Do you understand how the clouds float, those wonders of Him who is perfect in knowledge?
- Job 37:10–13By the breath of God the ice is formed and the watery expanses are frozen.
- Isa 55:9–13“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.
- 1 Jn 3:8–9The one who practices sin is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the very start. This is why the Son of God was revealed, to destroy the works of the devil.
- Ps 107:29He calmed the storm to a whisper, and the waves of the sea were hushed.
- Ps 107:25For He spoke and raised a tempest that lifted the waves of the sea.
- Luke 6:43–44No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.
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Christ at the center
John declares him plainly: the eternal Word made flesh, the Lamb of God, the great 'I AM' — bread, light, door, shepherd, way, truth, life, resurrection — that you may believe and have life in his name.
How John 3:8 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.