Gospels · NT
Nicodemus
The Pharisee and ruler of the Jews who came to Jesus by night and later helped bury him.
Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a member of the Sanhedrin, and 'the teacher of Israel.' He came to Jesus by night — likely from fear of his peers — addressing him as 'Rabbi' and acknowledging the signs as proof that God was with him. Jesus answered with the words that have echoed across two millennia: 'Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.'
The conversation that follows contains John 3:16 — the single most quoted verse in scripture. Nicodemus disappears from the narrative confused. But he reappears in John 7, cautiously defending Jesus' right to a hearing before the council, and finally in John 19, where he joins Joseph of Arimathea in burying Jesus, bringing seventy-five pounds of myrrh and aloes for the embalming — a kingly amount.
His three appearances trace the quiet arc of a man moving from secret inquirer to public disciple at exactly the moment when public discipleship was most costly.
Key moments
Came to Jesus by night
John 3 — heard 'you must be born again' and John 3:16.
Defended Jesus before the Sanhedrin
John 7:50-51.
Helped bury Jesus
John 19:39 — with a king's measure of spices.
Key verses
"Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
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"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life."
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"Nicodemus saith unto them (he that came to him before, being one of them), Doth our law judge a man, except it first hear from himself and know what he doeth?"
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"And there came also Nicodemus, he who at the first came to him by night, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds."
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Frequently asked
Did Nicodemus become a Christian?
John never uses the word 'disciple' of him, but his public action at the burial — at enormous social and political risk — is widely read as the silent answer to the question Jesus left him with in John 3. Church tradition remembers him as a believer.