Nicodemus

Nicodemus is a New Testament figure venerated as a saint in a number of Christian traditions. Depicted as a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin who is drawn to hear Jesus' teachings, he is mentioned in three places in the Gospel of John: He first visits Jesus one night to discuss Jesus' teachings. (John 3) The second time Nicodemus is mentioned, he reminds his colleagues in the Sanhedrin that the law requires that a person be heard before being judged. (John 7) Finally, Nicodemus appears after Jesus' crucifixion to provide the customary spices for anointing the dead, and assists Joseph of Arimathea in preparing the body of Jesus for burial. (John 19) An apocryphal work under his name—the Gospel of Nicodemus—was produced in the mid-4th century, and is mostly a reworking of the earlier Acts of Pilate, which recounts the Harrowing of Hell. Although there is no clear source of information about Nicodemus outside the Gospel of John, Ochser and Kohler, writing in The Jewish Encyclopedia in 1905, identify him with Nicodemus ben Gurion, mentioned in the Talmud as a wealthy and popular holy man reputed to have had miraculous powers. Some 21st-century historians make the same connection. Other scholars reject this identification, arguing that the biblical Nicodemus is likely an older man at the time of his conversation with Jesus, while Nicodemus ben Gurion was on the scene forty years later, at the time of the First Jewish-Roman War. Nicodemus is considered by both Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church traditions to have secretly been a disciple of Jesus on the basis of the narrative in John 19; there is no explicit mention of his discipleship in the Gospel of John. Owing to his insistence on a hearing for Jesus according to Jewish law, Nicodemus is sometimes referred to as "defender of Jesus".