John 3:2-14

²this one came unto him by night, and said to him, 'Rabbi, we have known that from God thou hast come — a teacher, for no one these signs is able to do that thou dost, if God may not be with him.'

³Jesus answered and said to him, 'Verily, verily, I say to thee, If any one may not be born from above, he is not able to see the reign of God;'

⁴Nicodemus saith unto him, 'How is a man able to be born, being old? is he able into the womb of his mother a second time to enter, and to be born?'

⁵Jesus answered, 'Verily, verily, I say to thee, If any one may not be born of water, and the Spirit, he is not able to enter into the reign of God;

⁶that which hath been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which hath been born of the Spirit is spirit.

⁷'Thou mayest not wonder that I said to thee, It behoveth you to be born from above;

⁸the Spirit where he willeth doth blow, and his voice thou dost hear, but thou hast not known whence he cometh, and whither he goeth; thus is every one who hath been born of the Spirit.'

⁹Nicodemus answered and said to him, 'How are these things able to happen?'

¹⁰Jesus answered and said to him, 'Thou art the teacher of Israel — and these things thou dost not know!

¹¹'Verily, verily, I say to thee — What we have known we speak, and what we have seen we testify, and our testimony ye do not receive;

¹²if the earthly things I said to you, and ye do not believe, how, if I shall say to you the heavenly things, will ye believe?

¹³and no one hath gone up to the heaven, except he who out of the heaven came down — the Son of Man who is in the heaven.

¹⁴'And as Moses did lift up the serpent in the wilderness, so it behoveth the Son of Man to be lifted up,