A few days ago, we used a well-known Bible verse from John's Gospel as our "Verse of the Day":
"Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3)
One of our readers in Australia pointed out something interesting -- something that sheds some new light on this statement. In the original Greek text, the word "ἄνωθεν" is used, and it's often been translated as "again". That's not wrong, but it doesn't emphasize another common meaning of "ἄνωθεν" in the Bible, as being "from above".
As one point of reference, Thayer's "New Testament Greek-English Lexicon" offers the following definitions for ἄνωθεν (anothen {an'-o-then}):
1) from above, from a higher place, and (1a) of things which come from heaven or God
2) from the first, from the beginning, from the very first
3) anew, over again
Nicodemus, the Pharisee who was talking with Jesus in the story from John 3, took Jesus's statement literally, and with the "again" meaning.
But Jesus explained it more deeply, and it's pretty clear from verses 5-6 that He was using a broader definition. We need to be reborn from above.
