There can
be no doubt, on any honest interpretation of the words, that γεννηθῆναι ἐξ ὕδατος refers to the token or outward sign of baptism,—γ. ἐκ πνεύματος to the thing
signified, or inward grace of the Holy Spirit. All attempts to get rid of these two plain facts have sprung from
doctrinal prejudices, by which the views of expositors have been warped. Such
we have in Calvin: “spiritum, qui nos repurgat, et qui virtute sua in nos
diffusa vigorem inspirat cœlestis vitæ;”—Grotius: “spiritum aquæ instar
emundantem;”—Cocceius: “gratiam Dei, sordes et vitia abluentem;”—Lampe:
“obedientiam Christi;”—Tholuck, who holds that not Baptism itself, but only its
idea, that of cleansing, is referred to;—and others, who endeavour to resolve ὕδατος καὶ πνεύματος into a figure of ἕν διὰ δυοῖν, so as to make it
mean ‘the cleansing or purifying Spirit.’
All the better and deeper expositors have recognized the co-existence of the
two, water and the Spirit. So for the most part the
ancients: so Lücke (in his last edition), De Wette, Neander, Stier, Olshausen,
&c. (Henry Alford, Alford's Greek
Testament: An Exegetical and Critical Commentary [Grand Rapids, Mich.:
Guardian Press, 1976], 1:714)