John 3:10-13 We speak what We know and testify what We have seen

 Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?  Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness.  If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?  No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven."

(10)  Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?"   Jesus does not ask if Nicodemus is "a" teacher but instead uses the definite article, "the" teacher of Israel.  As a Pharisee and a member on the Sanhedrin, Nicodemus would have been a highly respected authority on the Jewish religion.  Jesus has submitted as fact that to see and to enter the kingdom of God requires being born again of the Spirit.  Jesus points out by means of His question, "do [you] not know these things?," that even the advanced education of the Pharisees was critically, even tragically, flawed in overlooking the necessity of spiritual rebirth.

(11)  "Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness."  Jesus informed Nicodemus that His knowledge of spiritual realities came directly from the mouth of God.  When Jesus used the plural, "We", He was speaking on behalf of the Godhead.  So that we might not be tempted to consider the plural pronoun to be a transcription error, let us take this opportunity to marvel at the veracity of the ancient textual witnesses.



P52

The oldest known existing text of the Gospel of John is Ryland's papyrus fragment P52.  This manuscript has been dated by most scholars between 90 to 130 A.D., making it likely that this was one of the first copies from John's original text.  The writing on both sides agrees with the writing of later full texts.  The Hadriadic script style indicates that it was probably written around Ephesus; which also happens to be the base of John's ministry, from which he was exiled to the nearby island of Patmos.  P52 was found in North Africa where the Christian Church was thriving in the second century.

P75 - (dated 175-225 A.D.) and P66 - (dated by Christian experts between 100-150 A.D.) also preserve the earliest texts of the Gospels.  P66 is written in the typical text of the manuscripts produced in Alexandria.  It is important to grasp that these early manuscripts where being distributed into the hands of the elders who had been appointed directly by the Apostles themselves, or the very next generation.  These precious books were often bound containing all four gospels, or the complete works of Paul.  They irrefutably deny the scoffers who have suggested that the New Testament writings were merely Christian mythology composed by the Church in the third and fourth centuries.

Papyrus 66

What is germane to our text, John 3:11, is that all of these texts agree.  And not only that; they agree with the more recent texts from which the Geneva Bible and KJV were translated.  Presented below is a section containing John 3:11 from the codex Sinaiticus printed around 330 - 360 A.D.  The left side is a photocopy of the text in uncial (Greek all-caps).  The middle column is the Greek minuscule, with a rough word-for-word English translation on the right.



John 3:11 from Codex Sinaiticus ~ 330 A.D. with Gr minuscule and English





Seeing the text with our own eyes is helpful in comprehending the words which Nicodemus heard from Jesus.  Colossians 2 states that in Jesus "dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily."  As Jesus spoke in the plural, Nicodemus must have felt the presence and glory of God; in much the same way as when Jesus spoke to the crowd on the night of His betrayal.  The mob sent by the priests said they were seeking Jesus.  And when He said to them, “I am He,” they drew back and fell to the ground. - John 18:6

 

Now the I AM was speaking to Nicodemus using the plural to make Himself perfectly clear, and perfectly known.  Nicodemus was undoubtedly moved.  And it is noteworthy that Nicodemus asked no more questions.  We could well believe that Nicodemus was changed from then on.  Later when the chief priests and the Pharisees would join forces to arrest Jesus at the Temple, it would be Nicodemus who would stand up and challenge them.  The gospels say that many of the Pharisees came to believe in Jesus, but Nicodemus was the one who would bring a hundred pounds of burial spices and help Joseph of Arimathea carry Jesus' body to the tomb.  The Lord only knows how much of Nicodemus' depth of faith and love was imparted in that moment when the Fullness of the Godhead spoke in His plurality to this special saint.

(12)  "If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?"  The Pharisees distinguished their school of thought from the Sadducees by their understanding of spirits and angels.  Jesus had used the wind and physical birth to represent spiritual truths.  If Nicodemus continued to challenge Jesus about spiritual phenomena which could be related to earthly examples, how would Nicodemus receive as truth heavenly information for which there was no physical equivalent?

 

(13)  "No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven."  Once again Jesus openly declares His deity as God incarnate.  John and the other disciples may have been present during Nicodemus' visit because John makes a similar statement at the beginning of this gospel.  No one has seen God at any time.  The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. - John 1:18  Jesus is the greatest religious authority who has been, or ever will be.  All that is true about life, death, and eternity is found in Christ and in His Word.  Jesus said, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away." - Matthew 24:35

 

Consider the rich reward received by Nicodemus by meeting with Jesus in a quiet place.  And as you seek to know the truth, may the words of Paul's prayer be fulfilled: that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height - to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. - Ephesians 3:16-19