Nicodemus

Etymology

From 'nike' (victory) and 'demos' (people). A thoroughly Greek name borne by a Jewish leader — suggesting he came from a Hellenised aristocratic family.

Who they were

Nicodemus came to Jesus by night — a detail that may be literal or symbolic, or both. He was a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin, Israel's ruling council, and he opened with a careful compliment: 'Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God.' Jesus' response bypassed the flattery entirely: 'No one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.' Nicodemus was bewildered: 'How can someone be born when they are old?' The conversation that followed produced one of the Bible's most quoted verses — John 3:16 — and some of its most poetic imagery: the Spirit blowing where it wishes, the bronze serpent lifted in the wilderness, light coming into the world while people prefer darkness. Nicodemus appears twice more in John's Gospel, each time bolder. In John 7, he cautiously defends Jesus before the Sanhedrin: 'Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him?' In John 19, after the crucifixion, he appears openly — bringing seventy-five pounds of myrrh and aloes to prepare Jesus' body for burial. The man who first came in darkness ended in the daylight, carrying burial spices to a cross. His journey from night to noon is one of John's most carefully plotted arcs.

Character qualities

• Intellectual honesty
• Gradual courage
• Movement from secrecy to public devotion
• Willingness to be confused and keep seeking

Key verse

John 3:3

Where they appear

Themes

Variants & related forms

Nicodemo · Nikodemos

Related names