A Translation Problem—John 3:8

J. D. THOMAS
Abilene Christian University

Greek (UBS Ed.) — to pneuma hopou thelei pnei, ten phonen autou
akoueis, all ouk oidas pothen erchetai kai pou hupagei. Houtos estin
pas ho gegennemenos ek tou pneumatos.
Wyclif (ca. 1375 A.D.) — The Spirit brethith where he wole, and herist
his vois, but thou wost not, fro whennis he commeth, ne whidir he
goith; So is each man that is borun of the Spirit.
Tyndale (1525) — The wynde bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest
his sounder butt thou canst not tell whence he commeth and whither he
goeth. So is every man that is boren of the sprete.
Bishops' (1568) — The wynde bloweth where it lusteth and thou hearest
the sounde therof but canst not tel whence it commeth, whyther it
goeth: So is every one that is born of the Spirite.
Rheims-Douay (1582) — The Spirit breathes where he will; and thou
hearest his voice, but thou knowest not whence he commeth and
whither he goeth: so is every one that is borne of the Spirit.
King James (1611) — 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 everyone that is born of the Spirit.
The above translations point out rather vividly a problem—whether to
translate to pneuma pnei as "the Spirit breathes" or as "the wind
blows." It is noticeable that WycliPs version, done long before the Prot-
estant Reformation (1517 A.D.), and the official Catholic (Rheims-
Douay) non-Protestant version of the post-Reformation period both
render the expression as "the Spirit breathes," whereas all the Protestant
versions (done after the Reformation began) uniformly render it as "the
wind blows." The latter wording has also come on down to our day in
the major English and American translations, with a few of them putting
"the Spirit breathes" in their footnotes (ARV, RSV, NEB, the New
American, and the Jerusalem Bible), no doubt under the pressure of
scholarship.
219
220 Restoration Quarterly

Historically, pneuma means both "wind" and "Spirit." The Sep-

tuagint has numerous uses of it as wind, and so in the classical writers,
who rarely use it as spirit. By NT times, however, and in the NT, its com-
mon usage is Spirit, being found as wind only once (other than the ques-
tionable John 3:8 passage), in Hebrews 1:7, where it is a direct quotation
from the OT. The verb pnein, however, occurs five times in the NT and
always means "blowing of the wind." E.D. Burton1 says that the NT
usage of pneuma follows the OT more than classical Greek, yet it has cer-
tain pecularities of its own:
1) It is no longer a prevailingly substantival term, as in the Greek writers, but with few
exceptions individualizing as in the Jewish-Greek, following the Hebrew.
2) Its most frequent use is to the Spirit of God. For this there is only the slightest
precedent in the non-Jewish Greek writers. The NT, especially the Pauline writings,
shows a marked advance even on Jewish Greek.
3 ) . . . But pneuma having now become an individualized term, and as such, a name for
both the soul of man and the Spirit of God, is used as the seat of the moral and
religious life of man.
4) Pneuma is now used as a general term for incorporeal beings.
Thus we see that by NT times the meaning of pneuma had changed
away from wind9 and so we would expect any occurrence in the NT of the
meaning as wind to be very unusual and in need of explanation. The term
pneuma is found about 370 times in the NT, and in our English versions
the translation wind is found only this one time (John 3:8), excepting the
Hebrew 1:7 quotation. Bernard2 observes that the context of John 3:8
"removes the ambiguity, demanding spirit rather than wind," and he
also notes that historically the Latin versions support "spirit."
Interestingly, pneuma is found a second time in John 3:8, and no one
has ever translated this second occurrence as wind. This fact speaks
much for what the context is discussing. Bernard holds that both occur-
rences in the same verse have the same meaning.2 It would seem that if
the legitimate meaning is wind in the first instance only, strong logic is
needed to support the idea.
For the views of early Christian writers Bernard3 notes that both
Ignatius (110 A.D.) and Origen (200 A.D.) translated the John 3:8 word

'E.D. Burton. Galatians: International Critical Commentary, New York: Chas.

Scribner's Sons, 1920, p. 489.
2
J.H. Bernard, The Gospel According to St. John, Vol. I N.Y., Chas. Scribner's Sons,
1929, pp. 106-108.
3
Ibid.
 Thomas: A Translation Problem—John 3:8 221

as spirit9 though wind is found in some of the later fathers. A check of

the early Christian Apologists (last half of the second century) reveals
that Justin Martyr, Tatian, and Athenagoras in several references all
invariably use spirit (never wind), although "breath" is found one time
in Justin.
"Breathing" is akin to "spiring" as in respire, transpire, and inspire.
The use of theopneustos in 2 Timothy 3:16 as "God breathed" or "God
inspired" illustrates the relation of the two shades of meaning given the
word historically.
Marcus Dods4 says, "in favour of the other rendering there is nothing
to warn us that now we are to understand by the word pneuma 'wind' is
meant." He continues:
. . . if we could not only say "expire," "inspire," but also "spire," the best translation
might be the Spirit spires. As this cannot be, we may render: 'The Spirit breathes
where he will,' i.e., there is no limitation of his power to certain individuals, classes,
races.
Dods further observes that "the voice of the Spirit is articulate speech,
working intelligible results . . . full of reason, in harmony with human
nature and vivifying it to higher life."
C. K. Barrett5 has the unusual suggestion "that both windand spirit
are legitimate translations and both should be used. Either one by itself
would be wrong. It has a double meaning, which cannot be reproduced
in English. The Spirit, like the wind, is entirely beyond both the control
and the comprehension of man." Surely the mystery of the Spirit's
operation is one of John's points here, but the double-meaning concept
seems to be foreign and no doubt this is why no one else has suggested it.
Intelligible Hearing
Another factor that affects the translation of John 3:8 is the question
of what is heard—whether it is an intelligible message or a mere sound or
noise. Greek grammar and syntax have something to say here, but few
have taken notice of this. The word phonen9 meaning sound or
voice, usually means voice (with an intelligible message) when used after a
verb of hearing and in the accusative case. If it is used with the genitive
case, it usually means that a sound or noise is heard but that no message
is received. These grammatical "rules" are not always observed and we
recognize that there are exceptions, but they obtain the great majority of
the time, as we shall note.

4
Marcus Dods, Expositor's Greek Testament. John 3:8 reference.
5
C.K. Barrett, Gospel According to St. John.London: S.P.C.K., p. 176.
222 Restoration Quarterly

That the Spirit "inspires" an intelligible, reasonable message, upon

whomever he chooses is a Biblical concept, found abundantly in the NT
(e.g., 1 Corinthians 14). The context of John 3:8 lends to the idea of an
intelligible message in that although tenphonen autou akoueis may mean
either "you hear its sound," or "you hear (and understand) his
message," (relayed to you through his inspired spokesmen), it probably
means "you get the saving message" here because phonen is used in the
accusative case.
The significance of the above observations becomes apparent after
considering the following comments on the use of cases after verbs of
hearing, etc.:
A. T. Robertson's Historical Greek Grammar (p. 506), on the use of
akouo with the accusative:
The accusative accents the intellectual apprehension of the sound, while the genitive
calls attention to the sound of voice without accenting the sense. The word akouo itself
has two senses which fall in well with this case distinction, one "to hear," the other,
"to understand."
B. F. Westcott6 notes that phonen "commonly implies an articulate,
intelligible voice . . .," while Bernard7 and Vincent8 point out that
phonen is found with both articulate and inarticulate uses. J. H.
Moulton's Greek Grammar9 takes this stance: "If the content of the
hearing is given, akouo usually takes the accusative," and that this "may
mean to understand."
The Blass-DeBrunner grammar10 notes that John uses the genitive
after akouo to mean "obey," while with the accusative it means
"perception." Smyth's classical Greek Grammar11 says that akouo". . .
meaning to become aware of, learn, takes the accusative," and . . . the
genitive is less common than the accusative when the perception is
intellectual."

6
B.F. Westcott, Gospel According to St. John. (Greek Text and Introduction, Vol. I
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1954, p. 112.
'Bernard, The Gospel.
•M.R. Vincent,Word Studies in the N.T., Vol. Π. N.Y.: Chas. Scribner's Sons, 1901,
p.94.
9
J.H. Moulton, Grammar of NT Greek, Vol. III. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1963,
pp. 161, 233.
,0
F. Blass and A. DeBrunner, A Greek Grammar of the New Testament (Tr. R. W.
Funk.). Univ. of Chicago Press, 1961, p. 95.
n
H.W. Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges. N.Y. American Book Co., 1920,
pp.323,324.
 Thomas: A Translation Problem—John 3:8 223

Admittedly, the verb of hearing can take either case when

"understanding" is implied, but the normal and most frequent construc-
tion is when the accusative is used. A problem in the form of a biblical
contradiction would be present if there were not this distinction between
the two cases. In Acts 9:7, Paul's companions are said to have heard the
same voice which he heard (vs. 4). But Acts 22:9, where he is recounting
his conversion experience, says that his companions did not hear the
voice. This is all clear when we note that Acts 9:4 and 22:9 use the ac-
cusative after akouo and Acts 9:7 uses the genitive. The companions
heard a sound but they did not comprehend any message in it. The Greek
is perfectly clear.
As we look at history of the translating of this verse, it appears to this
writer that the change from spirit to wind was brought about under the
influence of the Augustinian and Calvinistic doctrines which claimed
that a sinner is converted by a direct operation of the Spirit upon him
without the word, and the translators were giving in to the current trend
in theology. The fact that pneuma was translated wind only once in all
the NT definitely lends to this suspicion.
Certainly the action of the Holy Spirit through the words of the NT in
convicting and converting the sinner is itself a great mystery. We do not
question this. Our quarrel is with the Calvinistic doctrine which claims
that the alien sinner is convicted and converted to Christ "without
words," by some mysterious immediate operation of the Spirit upon the
individual sinner. The idea of mystery is valid; but through words (an
intelligible message) is, in John 3:8 (the Calvinists' best text), what is
actually presented as being the method of "being born (begotten) of the
Spirit." The Spirit begets, through the word (1 Cor. 4:15); then the per-
son is delivered from the water of baptism and we have the new, spiritual
birth in fact.
For John 3:8 to say that the Spirit inspires men and then others get the
saving message through them makes sense of this context, of other scrip-
tural references on the point, and of the philological and historical con-
siderations bearing upon this problem. How the Spirit begets through the
word is not known to us through our five senses, and thus it is
mysterious. We get and understand the message and make an intelligent
response to it by faith. The end result is not "better felt than told," but is
in truth intelligible and tellable to others!
A good translation would be:
The Spirit inspires wherever he chooses, and you hear his voice, though you cannot tell
from where it comes or where it goes; so is everyone begotten that is begotten by the
Spirit.
224 Restoration Quarterly

A free translation might read:

The Spirit inspires whomever he chooses, and you comprehend the message thus
produced though you cannot sensually discern the Spirit's action. In this way is
everyone begotten who is begotten by the Spirit.
 ^ s
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