Nicodemus, ( meaning “victory of the people”), was introduced in John 3:1 as “a Pharisee, ... who was a member of the Jewish ruling council.”
The Pharisees were a group within the Jewish population who had been calling their people back to strict adherence to the law of Moses. They had built a large body of oral tradition that interpreted and expandedthe written Law. Although there were likely only 6,000 Pharisees at the time of Christ, they held a great deal of influence over the rules followed by the citizenry.
Nicodemus was a member of the “Jewish ruling council.” or “Sanhedrin,” the 70-member group that served as the Jewish Supreme Court. Most of the members of the Sanhedrin were Sadducees, the aristocratic class that collaborated with the Romans to oversee the temple. A smaller number were Pharisees.
As such an authoritative religious figure, Nicodemus came to Jesus in John 3 to see who he was and whether he was teaching sound doctrine. He sought to learn if Jesus was a messenger from God, or someone spreading heresy. The conversation took place early in Jesus’ ministry, before the religious leaders had learned much about his core teachings. However, when the two met, Jesus introduced concepts that had Nicodemus bewildered.
Nicodemus began the conversation with flattery: “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him” (John 3:2). Without acknowledging this compliment, Jesus confronted Nicodemus, saying that people can’t really speak of such things unless they have been born again.
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
“How can someone be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!” (John 3:3–4)
Now, Nicodemus would seem to be the perfect candidate for bringing the Jesus movement legitimacy, as a righteous Pharisee and a powerful member of the Sanhedrin. Jesus himself called him “Israel’s teacher,” affirming him as a rabbi from God. However, the words of Jesus brought into question whether or not Nicodemus was in fact, part of God’s kingdom.
Jesus responded by clarifying, but likely confused Nicodemus more. You are born again by “water and the Spirit,” Jesus explained. The Spirit, after all, is like the wind, blowing where it will, and that’s the same with people born again.
Even more befuddled, Nicodemus asked, “How can this be?” Jesus continued, “I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?” (John 3:12).
That Jesus thought Nicodemus should have understood, implies that the concept or new birth was somewhere to be found in the Old Testament. In fact, Ezekiel 36:25–27 speaks of God cleansing his people with water and giving them his Spirit, which is soon followed by the Ezekiel 37 vision of God miraculously raising dry bones to life. Also, other Old Testament prophets had spoken of God one day cleansing and regenerating his people.
Later, when his fellow Pharisees were bickering with the chief priests about Jesus, Nicodemus took the opportunity to offer a reasonable defense of Jesus:
“Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?” (John 7:50–51)
Even though he was quickly overruled by others, Nicodemus remained a Jesus sympathizer. After Jesus’ crucifixion, he joined a fellow member of the Sanhedrin (Joseph of Arimathea) who asked Pilate for the body so he could anoint it and bury it in its own tomb:
“He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid.” (John 19:39–41)
Nicodemus has originally come to Jesus at night. At the end of his conversation with Jesus, the conflict of light vs darkness takes center stage. Due to uncertain translation from the Greek, we aren’t sure if this was Jesus speaking, or if Jesus had stopped talking and John was giving theological reflection on the conversation he had just narrated:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”
Some of the extra-biblical traditions about Nicodemus are based on conjecture. It is believed that he was somewhat elderly, based on the first question he posed to Jesus: “How can anyone be born after having grown old?” (John 3:4). The idea that he was wealthy is based upon his friendship with Joseph of Arimathea, (who is identified as a rich man), and from his provision of a large quantity of myrrh and aloes for Jesus’ burial.
