[Julie Steiner]

Originally Posted by Charlie Southerland

God does what He does according to His pleasure. John 3:8 says— that you can hear the sound of the wind, but no one knows where it comes from. Has that mystery been solved yet?

In the passage you paraphrased, Jesus was explaining to Nicodemus--who had just asked, in a very literal way, how a person who has already been born can be born again--that people can be "born of the Spirit":


τὸ πνεῦμα ὅπου θέλει πνεῖ,
The wind/spirit/breath where it wishes blows/breathes

καὶ τὴν φωνὴν αὐτοῦ ἀκούεις,
and the sound of it you [second person singular, i.e. Nicodemus] hear,

ἀλλ’ οὐκ οἶδας πόθεν ἔρχεται
but you [second person singular, i.e. Nicodemus] do not know whence it comes,

καὶ ποῦ ὑπάγει·
and where it goes;

οὕτως ἐστὶν πᾶς ὁ γεγεννημένος ἐκ τοῦ πνεύματος.
thus [i.e., not knowing] is everyone who is [in the state of] having been born of the wind/spirit/breath.


Note that the use of capital letters for names is a new-fangled thing--different forms of letters for majuscule and minuscule uses did not even exist at the time. Also note that the English words "wind" and "spirit" are exactly the same in Greek. So Jesus may not even have been talking about "wind" at all, even metaphorically--he have been talking about the workings of the Holy Spirit the whole time.

Regardless, I don't think that Jesus's telling Nicodemus "you do not know" something meant that it must be past all human understanding, forever.

The Bible is not a science book. That doesn't mean it's not true, it just means that its truths are often metaphorical rather than factual. Those who insist on seeing literal, scientific accuracy in the Bible can, like Nicodemus, completely miss far more important truths in it.

As for wind, I grew up in a little town in the Mojave Desert, which happens to be where quite a bit of it comes from. In hot areas--i.e., areas that absorb a lot of the sun's thermal energy--the air expands, resulting in higher pressure and lower density. As that air gradually loses energy (i.e., cools), its molecules contract, resulting in lower pressure and greater density. Wind is the movement of air from areas of high pressure to areas of low pressure. This is why a falling barometer needle (measuring a decrease in air pressure) usually means it's going to get stormy, if the air attracted to that low pressure area is humid.

I hope this is helpful.