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Philo calls God’s creation of the universe an act of generation, the term for a father having a child, making human parenthood an echo of it. John applies the same language to believers, describing a birth into a new family.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Philo The Decalogue 1:107
Classical
106 And after this commandment relating to the seventh day he gives the fifth, which concerns the honour to be paid to parents, giving it a position on the confines of the two tables of five commandments each; for being the concluding one of the first table, in which the most sacred duties to the Deity are enjoined, it has also some connection with the second table which comprehends the obligations towards our fellow creatures; 107 and the cause of this, I imagine, is as follows: The nature of one's parents appears to be something on the confines between immortal and mortal essences. Of mortal essence, on account of their relationship to men and also to other animals, and likewise of the perishable nature of the body. And of immortal essence, by reason of the similarity of the act of generation to God the Father of the universe. 108 But it has often happened that men have attached themselves to one of these divisions, and have seemed to neglect the other; for being filled with a sincere love for piety, they have renounced all other occupations and considerations, and have devoted the whole of their lives to the service of God.
Date: 20-50 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
John 3:3
New Testament
1 Now a certain man, a Pharisee named Nicodemus, who was a member of the Jewish ruling council, 2 came to Jesus at night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs that you do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus replied, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter his mother’s womb and be born a second time, can he?” 5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must all be born from above.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it will, and you hear the sound it makes, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
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Notes and References
“... The earliest, most widespread sense of being begotten by God in Hellenism seems to have been being God’s children by virtue of creation, language shared in Hellenistic Judaism, for instance in the Jewish Sibylline Oracles. For Philo, God as creator is gennētēs, “begetter”; the whole universe is born from God after wisdom. But individual palingenesia, “rebirth,” for Philo, occurs at death. John’s birth from the Spirit as well as from the flesh, however, implies a special kind of re-creation (3:6; 20:22). ...”
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