A
popular interpretation has it that water represents human birth, whether semen
of man or waters in the womb, in contrast to birth from the Spirit; this,
however overlooks that the whole expression “of water and Spirit” defines the
manner in which one is born from above. Suggestions like these do not do
justice to the text and have not commended themselves to scholarly opinion. It
would seem that the text relates birth from above to baptism and the Holy
Spirit. (George R. Beasley Murray, John [Word Biblical Commentary 36;
Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1999], 48)
