John 3:10 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Our Saviour doth not so much wonder at as upbraid the ignorance of Nicodemus, and all of his sect, who went for masters, or teachers, and that in Israel; who had the law and the prophets, and yet were ignorant of those things which were necessary to be known to every ordinary person's salvation. Will any say, But where was there any thing spoken in the books of the law and the prophets about regeneration, or a being born again? Answer. What other things could be meant by the circumcision of the heart, commanded by Moses, Deuteronomy 10:16, promised in Deuteronomy 30:6; by the new heart, and the new spirit, promised Ezekiel 36:26; by the clean heart prayed for by David, Psalms 51:10 ? A teacher in Israel should from hence have understood the necessity of a new and of a clean heart; but the whole sect of the Pharisees were so taken up with the trifles of the rites and traditions, and the works of the law, that as to these spiritual things of nearer and much higher concernment to people's souls, they knew and spake little of them.