John 3:4 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Nicodemus saith unto him, &c.— Nicodemus, hearing Jesus affirm that the posterityof Abraham needed a second generation and birth to fit them for becoming the people of God, could not take his words in the sense which he, with the other doctors, commonly affixed to them, when speaking of proselytes, because so applied theysignified conversion to Judaism; a thing not applicable to the Jews: not doubting, therefore, that Jesus spoke of a second natural generation and birth, he was exceedingly surprised, and his answer evidently proves, that the translation which some give of the word ανωθεν, in the former verse, from above, is wrong; for it is plain he thought that without entering a second time into his mother's womb, there was no being born in the manner Christ spoke of, ανωθεν, that is, again. What is added at John 3:5 explains what is left undetermined, John 3:3 as to the original of this birth. See 1 Peter 1:3 and 1 John 5:18.