Born of Water and the Spirit
John 3:3-8, the new birth, as the early church read it
"Ye must be born again" is one of the most quoted lines in the Bible, and one of the most variously explained. The early church read it with remarkable agreement: a real second birth, from above, given by God, and tied to baptism, the water as the outward sign, the Spirit as the inward work. This is one of the places where the later traditions divide, so below are the Fathers in their own words, a plain restatement, and an honest note on where the readings part.
Each Father's words are verbatim and attributed (Catena Aurea, public domain, lightly corrected for scan errors). The box marked "In plain terms" is our own restatement, never the Father's words.
John 3:3-4 · KJVJesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?
"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God: as if He said, You are not yet born again, i.e. of God, by a spiritual begetting… for it is the begetting by baptism, which enlightens the mind. The expression, From above, means, according to some, from heaven, according to others, from the beginning."
St. John ChrysostomJesus says you cannot so much as see God's kingdom without being born over again, from above, from God. It is a genuine new birth, not a figure of speech for turning over a new leaf. Nicodemus, hearing only with earthly ears, pictures climbing back into the womb, and misses that Jesus is speaking of God begetting a person anew.
John 3:5-6 · KJVJesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
"A man must be born of water and of the Spirit, if he is to enter into the kingdom of God… to obtain the eternal inheritance of his heavenly Father, he must be born of the womb of the Church. And since man consists of two parts, body and soul… water the visible part cleansing the body; the Spirit by His invisible cooperation, changing the invisible soul."
St. Augustine"If any one asks how a man is born of water, I ask in return, how Adam was born from the ground… though the element of water is the subject-matter, the whole work is done by the Spirit of grace… by the immersion of our heads in the water, the old man disappears and is buried as it were in a sepulcher, whence he ascends a new man… That then which the womb is to the offspring, water is to the believer; he is fashioned and formed in the water."
St. John Chrysostom"Born of water and the Spirit" was read, with one voice in the early church, as baptism: the water the outward, visible sign that washes the body, the Spirit the inward, invisible power that remakes the soul, the two together a real new birth. Augustine calls it being born "of the womb of the Church"; Chrysostom sees in going under the water and rising again a burial and resurrection with Christ. It is neither an empty ceremony nor a bare symbol; it is God the Spirit working through the sign.
John 3:7-8 · KJVMarvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. 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.
"The wind blows where it lists, and you hear the sound thereof, but can not tell whence it comes, and whither it goes: so is every one that is born of the Spirit… if no one can restrain the wind from going where it will, much less can the laws of nature… restrain the action of the Spirit."
St. John Chrysostom"This completely refutes Macedonius the impugner of the Spirit, who asserted that the Holy Ghost was a servant. The Holy Ghost, we find, works by His own power, where He will, and what He will."
TheophylactThe new birth is the Spirit's own free, sovereign act, like the wind, which you cannot command, trace, or manufacture; it "blows where it lists." That guards against treating baptism as automatic magic on one side, or as something we generate by our own decision on the other. And note Theophylact's point: that the Spirit acts "by His own power" shows He is God, not a creature or servant.
Where the traditions diverge
This is one of the dividing passages. The early and historic reading, held in common by the Orthodox, Catholic, Lutheran, and Anglican traditions, is that "born of water and the Spirit" means baptism really conveys the new birth (often called baptismal regeneration), the Spirit working through the water. Much of later Baptist and broadly evangelical Protestantism reads "water" differently (as physical birth, or as the Word, or as a symbol), holding that regeneration comes by the Spirit through faith, with baptism as the sign that follows. Both sides affirm that it is the Spirit who gives life (verse 8 makes the water alone no magic); they differ on whether the water is the means or the emblem. The honest historical point, and the reason it belongs in a study of where the church has drifted, is that the early church read the water and the Spirit together as one new birth; the water-as-mere-symbol reading is the later development.
Patristic text from the Catena Aurea (public domain, transcription lightly corrected). Scripture in the King James Version; the plain-language lines are our own restatement, not the Fathers' words. See also The Word Was God and Before Abraham Was, I AM; this passage in the Study Bible; and John 3 at BibleHub. (Proof stage; further Fathers to be added from the ANF/NPNF.)