156 Karl Olav Sandnes of Man, “loving” and “coming to the light”. This might disturb the epistemological picture given so far. However, in John’s Gospel all these terms, including “knowing”, are interrelated terms. Jesus’ last prayer in chap. 17 demonstrates this. At the beginning of this prayer, the knowledge of Jesus’ disciples is in focus (17,3.7-8), but “believing” (17,8.29) and “loving” (17,26) appear as well. In the same way, the dialogue with Nicodemus moves easily between knowing, believing and loving. The epistemological aspect of believing is clearly in focus in 3,12, where pisteuvw sums up both ginwvskw (v. 10) and lambavnw (v. 11): Here is a claim to have a faith that gives knowledge about things the teacher of Israel failed to understand. Jesus emphasizes that proper knowledge is beyond the capacity of Nicodemus, as well as that of any human being (3,5-8). The two “unless …” sentences (3, 5) make birth a[nwqen or birth of water and the Spirit a basic requirement. Nicodemus’ incapacity is given general relevance: “You must (dei') be born a[nwqen” (v. 7) (8). This requirement triggers Nicodemus’ question: “How can these things be” (v. 9), which was anticipated in v. 4. The entire dialogue sets out to respond to this. John 3,3-8 emphasizes the contrast between flesh and Spirit, which implies that “like is known by like”. The “seeing” or “believing” that Jesus addresses cannot be apprehended by flesh. Flesh is restricted to flesh. Spirit, however, bridges heaven and earth and gives knowledge of heavenly things that the flesh cannot see. Spirit and birth a[nwqen thus correspond to each other. V. 13 claims that Jesus alone has access to heavenly secrets, because he has descended from heaven and ascended there as well (cf. 1,51). His whence and whither is entirely with God. A spiritual transformation, birth a[nwqen, gives the believer a heavenly origin like that of Jesus himself. What the heavenly origin is for Jesus, birth a[nwqen is for human beings. The contrast between flesh and Spirit is overcome by God’s love (3,16). Flesh is thus not understood in inimical terms. The contrast between flesh and the Spirit occurs in 6,62-63 as well. The explicit issue is belief and unbelief, albeit the aspect of understanding might be present in the question “who can accept (ajkouvein) it” (6,60). The Spirit gives life. Flesh is described as a contrast due to its futility; life does not and cannot spring from flesh. This does not imply that flesh knows flesh only, but that flesh must experience a transformation occasioned by the life-giving Spirit. (8) Dei' carries the meaning of divine necessity or plan; see e.g. John 3,14.30; 4,20; 20,9.