sovereign rule. As a Jew, Nicodemus would understand the kingdom of God as the long-awaited age to come. To “see” this kingdom would mean to experience resurrection life at the end of the age. What he did not understand was that to have a part in that kingdom required a second birth. 4 Taking the expression in its literal form, Nicodemus raised the question of how it would be possible for an old man to reenter his mother’s womb and be born a second time. It is highly unlikely that Nicodemus recognized