The Bible on Nicodemus

What the text says

Nicodemus appears exclusively in the Gospel of John — three episodes, no parallels in the Synoptics.

John 3:1–21 — the night visit. The Gospel introduces him with three identifying clauses: “a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.” He comes to Jesus at night (John 3:2) — a detail the text repeats at John 19:39, in his final appearance, so it appears to be deliberate. He addresses Jesus as “Rabbi, we know You are a teacher who has come from God.”

The conversation that follows produces some of the most-quoted material in the New Testament. Jesus responds: “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” The Greek gennēthē anōthen (γεννηθῇ ἄνωθεν) can mean “born again” or “born from above” — the ambiguity is in the word anōthen itself, which carries both senses. See the meaning of “born again” for the full word study.

Nicodemus’s response in 3:4 plays on the literal meaning: “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time to be born?” The conversation continues for another seventeen verses; Nicodemus disappears from the text without speaking again.

John 7:50–52 — the Sanhedrin meeting. At a meeting of the Jewish leadership where officers report they could not arrest Jesus, Nicodemus speaks:

“Does our law convict a man without first hearing from him to determine what he has done?”

The response from the other leaders: “Are you also from Galilee? Look into it, and you will see that no prophet arises out of Galilee.” The exchange is brief. Nicodemus does not declare allegiance; he raises a procedural objection. The text describes him as one of their own (he attends Sanhedrin meetings) and notes that he had earlier been to Jesus (“the one who had come to Him before”).

John 19:39–42 — the burial. After the crucifixion, Joseph of Arimathea — described as “a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews” — asks Pilate for Jesus’s body. Then:

Nicodemus, who had first come to Jesus at night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.

The amount is striking. Seventy-five pounds (Greek litras hekaton — about a hundred Roman pounds, roughly 33 kilograms) of spices is a royal burial quantity. By comparison, 2 Chronicles 16:14 describes the burial of King Asa with “great quantities” of spices in his royal tomb. Nicodemus and Joseph wrap Jesus’s body and lay it in a new tomb in a garden near the crucifixion site.

The arc

The text shows a deliberate three-stage progression:

1. John 3 (secret). He comes at night, addresses Jesus respectfully, has a private conversation.
2. John 7 (semi-public). At a Sanhedrin meeting, he speaks in Jesus’s defence — but only procedurally, and is rebuked by his colleagues.
3. John 19 (fully public). He participates in the burial — a ritual act, in daylight, requiring public association with an executed man and the ritual impurity that contact with a corpse entailed. The expense is conspicuous.

The Gospel of John shows this arc through composition rather than statement. The text never explicitly says “Nicodemus became a believer” — it shows the arc and leaves the conclusion implicit. Whether his final action constitutes confession of faith is left for the reader.

What the text doesn’t say

That Nicodemus formally converted or joined the early Christian community. The Gospel of John has him present at the burial; no further textual record exists. The substantial Eastern Orthodox tradition that venerates him as a saint (feast day 2 August, with Joseph of Arimathea) is post-biblical.

That he wrote the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus. That work — also called the Acts of Pilate — is a 4th-century composition; its attribution to Nicodemus is pseudepigraphal.

Key verse

John 19:39:

Nicodemus, who had first come to Jesus at night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.

The Gospel’s parenthetical reminder — “who had first come to Jesus at night” — links the final scene to the first. The night-time marker is doing structural work, not just naming.

Read in other translations

The passages above use the BSB and KJV — both public domain. To read John 3:1-21 in copyrighted modern translations, follow the links to BibleGateway:

• John 3 — full chapter on Bible1.org →
• John 3:1-21 — NIV →
• John 3:1-21 — ESV →
• John 3:1-21 — NLT →
• John 3:1-21 — NASB →
• John 3:1-21 — CSB →

Original language note

Nikodēmos (Νικόδημος) is a Greek name compounded from nikē (νίκη, “victory”) and dēmos (δῆμος, “people”). The name is Greek, not Hebrew or Aramaic — common in the eastern Mediterranean Jewish diaspora of the period. The same kind of name pattern appears in other Greek-named Jewish figures in the New Testament (Andrew, Philip, Stephen, Bartholomew).

The Talmud (Babylonian Talmud, Gittin 56a) names a wealthy Jerusalem figure called Naqdimon ben Gurion active in the 1st century CE; some scholars have proposed identifying him with the John 3 figure, but the identification is contested and the textual evidence is incomplete.

Related reading

• The meaning of “born again” — the phrase Jesus uses with Nicodemus, with the anōthen ambiguity in full
• The Bible on Mary Magdalene — another figure who participates in burial preparations