Womb of the Spirit

Part 5 examines the mystery of spiritual rebirth through the language of wind, Spirit, womb, water, baptism, resurrection and renewal. Jesus’ teaching in John 3 is read alongside Solomon’s words in Ecclesiastes 11:5, especially through the Hebrew word ruach, which can be rendered wind, breath, or spirit.

Nicodemus immediately associated rebirth with a mother’s womb — and Jesus did not correct him. Instead He drew a parallel between physical birth (“born of water”) and spiritual birth (“born of the Spirit”). Baptism pictures both that rebirth and Christ’s death, burial and resurrection.

The episode closes with historical testimony: excerpts connected to the Fifty Homilies attributed to Saint Makarios, which influenced John Wesley, and the reflections of Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf on the “Mother office” of the Holy Spirit.