1 ON KNOWING GOD ONE HOT NIGHT IN THE EARLY YEARS OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA A SOPHISTICATED and highly educated man named Nicodemus came to see a young rabbi, Jesus of Nazareth. The man wanted to discuss reality. So he began the conversation with a statement of where his own personal search for truth had taken him. He said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him” (Jn. 3:2). With the exception of the word Rabbi, which was