A Spirit is an Israelite

the Seedline of Jacob/Israel, "the LORD", and Jesus

And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, [and] with his seed after him, Genesis 17:19

JESUS REBUKES NICODEMUS FOR THINKING JESUS MEANT "BORN AGAIN"

John 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be begotten of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

John 3:6 That which is begotten of the flesh is a flesh; and that which is begotten of the Spirit is a spirit.

Jesus tells us here directly, by rebuking the religious "expert" Nicodemus' notion that Jesus was referring to "born again", that Israelites are "that which is begotten of the Spirit" and that each Israelite is a spirit.  Furthermore, Paul's allegory in Galatians 4 confirms that "a spirit" is a genetic descendant of Sarah, Abraham's wife.  He proves that an Israelite IS "a spirit", not is "of the spirit", nor "in the spirit", nor "able to gain spirit", nor "has spirit", nor can "become spirit", nor "is spiritual".  Paul also equates flesh to the descendants of Ishmael, making a firm distinction between two different seedlines who are both descendants of Abraham.

The Greek word "ek" [#1537], which means "of", does appear right after both instances of "born" [read:begotten], but is conspicuously absent from the second occurrences of "flesh" and "spirit".  Since "ek" qualifies "begotten" it does not even imply that either Ishmaelites are "of" the flesh or that Israelites are "of" the spirit.

Joh 3:6 That which is born^{1080 of1537 the3588 flesh4561 is2076 flesh;4561 and2532 that which is born1080 of1537 the3588 Spirit4151 is2076 spirit.4151}

Had Jesus intended to say that an Israelite "has" [read: hath] spirit, He would have used the Greek word "echo" [#2192], just as he used it in the following verse:

Joh 8:37 I know that ye are Abraham's seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.

Had Jesus intended to say that an Israelite is "in" spirit, He would have used the word "en" [#1722] just as He used it in the following verse:

Joh 18:20 Jesus answered him, I spake openly to the world; I ever taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, whither the Jews always resort; and in secret have I said nothing.

These words "has", "of", and "in" are conspicuously absent, which means that Jesus could only have said that an Israelite *is* a spirit.

IF AN ISRAELITE IS A SPIRIT, CAN HE ALSO HAVE SPIRIT?

No, at least not in this context where the word spirit is a direct reference of the seedline of Jacob/Israel and not some trait of the descendants of that seedline.  In other contexts, spirit may refer to traits of this seedline, but in this above Word from Jesus, it cannot.  It means only the seedline itself, and nothing else (and nobody else).  Only Israelites are spirit--and spirit applies only to Israelites (whether as a trait or as a direct reference).

"BORN" AND "BEGOTTEN" ARE NOT THE SAME WORDS

As an insight into how and who distorted what Jesus spoke here, it should be noted that the word "gennao" [Strong's #1080] from which "born" was translated in John 3:6 actually means "begotten", which are two very different words.  "Begotten" occurs when a father and mother conceive a child, but "born" occurs nine months later when the mother gives birth.  Had Jesus intended to say "born", He would have used the Greek word "tikto" [Strong's #5088] which DOES mean born and not begotten as we can see from the following verse:

Mat 2:2 Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.

It's impossible that "gennao" oculd mean both "born" and "begotten" as the translators would have us believe.   Yet they inexplicibly translated it as "begat" or "begotten" 49 times and as "born" 39 times.  This is particularly true when you consider that there IS a Greek word which we do know does mean "born" and could not mean "begotten":

John 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be begotten of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

John 3:6 That which is begotten of the flesh is flesh; and that which is begotten of the Spirit is spirit.

JESUS TOLD NICODEMUS THAT HE DID NOT SAY "BORN AGAIN"

Because it was translated as "born", and because the article "a" was not put before both "flesh" and "spirit", one third of modern Christians have the same misguided notion that Nicodemus had, which is that an Israelite must be "born again" in order to be a real Christian.  Had the word "begotten" been used, they would have had to believe that Israelites needed to be "begotten again", a concept which obviously would not have made any sense.

The following verse translates the word "gennao" into "conceived", further evidence of its real meaning:

Matthew 1:20 But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife; for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.

TRANSLATORS ADD VERSES TO CHANGE CONTEXT OF "SPIRIT"

As more evidence of the tampering of the Word of God by the translators and other church leaders with an axe to grind, see Romans 8:1 where the last part is known to have been added by man, not by God:

See the Textual Criticism at  http://www.bible-researcher.com/title.html

Rom 8:1  There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, [[[[who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit]]]]

By adding "who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit", the context of the word "spirit" has been subtly but significantly changed from a proper noun referring to Israelites themselves, to a verb which implies a conscious choice that Israelites (or anyone else for that matter) can make for themselves.  It implies that anyone can decide whether or not they want to "walk after the flesh" or "walk after the spirit", 180 degrees contrary to what Jesus said in John 3:6, but consistent with what Nicodemus thought He said.

Jesus said that He, Jacob, all Israelites, and "the LORD" who referred to Jacob as "my firstborn" ARE spirit.   "The LORD"'s reference to Israel [read: descendants of Jacob] as "my firstborn" is a title not even Adam, Moses, Noah, Jesus, nor Esau (who actually was the firstborn of Jacob and Esau) held:

And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn: Exodus 4:22

John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

ISRAELITES QUICKENETH, ISHMAELITES PROFITETH NOTHING

Is there ever an instance where "spirit" refers to a trait of God or of Israelites rather than to God and Israel themselves?  If you believe there is, then you need to put it into context with what Jesus said in John 3:6 and John 4:24 to be sure of yourself.  For example, are you sure that "spirit" is NOT a reference to Israelites and "flesh" is NOT a reference to Ishmaelites in the following verse?:

John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

If so, how can you be sure?  Does this verse refer to two different traits of Israelites ("flesh" and "spirit"), or does it simply say that Israelites will profit and Ishmaelites will not?

Copyright @ 2007 by Fathers' Manifesto & Christian Party