Nicodemus | |
|---|---|
_-_James_Tissot_-_overall.jpg) Nicodemus byJames Tissot,c. 1886 – c. 1894 | |
| Defender of Jesus | |
| Born | Galilee |
| Died | Judea |
| Venerated in | |
| Canonized | Pre-Congregation |
| Feast | Various (see§ Veneration): 3rd Sunday ofPascha, 2 August, 3 August, 31 August |
| Attributes | Pharisee |
| Patronage | |
Nicodemus[N 1]/nɪkəˈdiːməs/ is a New Testament figure venerated as asaint in a number of Christian traditions. He is depicted as aPharisee and a member of theSanhedrin who is drawn to hear Jesus's teachings. LikeLazarus, Nicodemus is not mentioned in thesynoptic Gospels, but only by John,[3] who devotes more than half ofChapter 3 of his gospel and a few verses ofChapter 7 to Nicodemus; and, lastly, mentions him inChapter 19.
Nicodemus is considered in bothCatholic andEastern Orthodox traditions to have secretly been adisciple of Jesus on the basis of the narrative inJohn 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 called "defender of Jesus".[4]
Some scholars have identified the Nicodemus of the New Testament with a 1st-century historicNicodemus ben Gurion, while others consider the dates and apparent age discrepancy between the two make this unlikely. Anapocryphal work under his name, theGospel of Nicodemus, was produced in the mid-4th century, and is mostly a reworking of the earlierActs of Pilate, which recounts theHarrowing of Hell.[5]
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Nicodemus is mentioned in three places in theGospel of John:
The first time Nicodemus is mentioned, he is identified as a Pharisee who comes to see Jesus at night. According to the scripture, Jesus went to Jerusalem for thePassover feast. While in Jerusalem hechased the moneychangers from the temple and overturned their tables. His disciples remembered then the words ofPsalm 69: "Zeal for your house will consume me." After these events "many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing".[d] When Nicodemus visits Jesus he makes reference to these events: "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".[e]
Jesus replies: "Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Then follows a conversation with Nicodemus about the meaning of being "born again" or "born from above" (Greek:ἄνωθεν): Nicodemus explores the notion of being literally born again from one's mother'swomb, but most theologians recognise that Nicodemus knew Jesus was not speaking of literal rebirth. TheologianCharles Ellicott wrote that "after the method of Rabbinic dialogue, [Nicodemus] presses the impossible meaning of the words in order to exclude it, and to draw forth the true meaning. 'You cannot mean that a man is to enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born. What is it, then, that you do mean?'" In this instance, Nicodemus chooses the literal (rather than the figurative) meaning ofanōthen and assumes that that meaning exhausts the significance of the word.[6]
Jesus expresses surprise, perhaps ironically, that "ateacher of Israel" does not understand the concept of spiritual rebirth:[f]
Jesus answered him, "Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony."
— John 3:10–11
In Chapter 7, Nicodemus advises his colleagues among "the chief priests and the Pharisees", to hear and investigate before making a judgment concerning Jesus, reminding them that Jewish law requires that a person must be heard before they can be condemned. Their mocking response argues that no prophet comes fromGalilee. Nonetheless, it is probable that he wielded a certain influence in the Sanhedrin.[3]
Finally, when Jesus is buried, Nicodemus brought a mixture ofmyrrh andaloes—about 100Roman pounds (33 kilograms, or 73 lb).[g] Nicodemus must have been a man of means; in his bookJesus of Nazareth: Holy Week,Pope Benedict XVI observes that, "The quantity of thebalm is extraordinary and exceeds all normal proportions. This is a royal burial."[7]
Although there is no clear source of information about Nicodemus outside theGospel of John, Ochser andKohler, writing inThe Jewish Encyclopedia in 1905,[8] identify him withNicodemus ben Gurion, mentioned in theTalmud as a wealthy and popular holy man reputed to have had miraculous powers. Some later 20th- and 21st-century historians make the same connection.[9] 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 theFirst Jewish-Roman War.[10][11]
Nicodemus is venerated as asaint in Eastern andOriental Orthodoxy and in Catholicism. The Eastern Orthodox andByzantine Catholic Churches commemorate him on the Sunday of the HolyMyrrhbearers, which is celebrated on the Third Sunday ofPascha (i.e., the second Sunday after Easter).[12] Pious tradition holds that hisrelics were found on 2 August, along with those ofSaint Stephen theProtomartyr;Gamaliel; and Gamaliel's second son,Abibon (also, "Abibas"; "Abibo"). This event is commemorated on that date in the Eastern churches,[13] while the CatholicGeneral Roman Calendar marks the anniversary of thetranslation of Nicodemus' remains, rather than their discovery, which by the same tradition occurred the following day, 3 August.[14] In theRoman Martyrology, Nicodemus' feast day is 31 August, celebrated jointly with SaintJoseph of Arimathea, and generally followed in theRoman Rite tradition.[3][15]
This does not preclude local preferences and traditions from being applied, as dioceses, national churches and religious institutes may have their own days of observance approved.[16] For example, at theSt. Nicodemus and St. Joseph of Arimathea Church, which theFranciscan Order established inRamla in the 19th century, permission from theLatin Patriarch of Jerusalem was obtained to celebrate the feast day of the two saints on the Saturday of the third week of Easter, so that the link between their role in the burial of Jesus and Eastersolemnities would be highlighted in the Holy Land.[17] The church has a painting above its altar, attributed toTitian,The Deposition from the Cross, which shows the two saints.[18]
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Nicodemus figures prominently inmedieval depictions of the Deposition orDescent from the Cross in which he and Joseph of Arimathea are shown removing the dead Christ from the cross, often with the aid of a ladder.[19]
Like Joseph, Nicodemus became the object of various pious legends during the Middle Ages, particularly in connection withmonumental crosses. He was reputed to have carved both theHoly Face of Lucca and theBatlló Crucifix, receivingangelic assistance with the face in particular and thus rendering the works instances ofacheiropoieta.[19]
Both of these sculptures date from at least a millennium after Nicodemus's life, but the ascriptions attest to the contemporary interest in Nicodemus as a character in medieval Europe.[19]
InHenry Vaughan's "The Night", Nicodemus is significant to the 17th-century poem's theme: He serves as the departure point and illustration of its meditation on night's relationship with experience of God.[20]
Persuaded: The Story of Nicodemus by David Harder is a fictionalized account of the life of Nicodemus. According to the author, he used episodes and timetables sourced from all four gospels and theActs of the Apostles to develop his novel's timeline of events. Scripture quoted within the novel is taken from the Passion Translation[h] version of the Bible.[21]
In 18th-centuryLutheranism, prescribed readings were assigned throughout the year; the gospel text of the meeting of Jesus and Nicodemus at night was assigned toTrinity Sunday.Johann Sebastian Bach composed severalcantatas for the occasion, of whichO heilges Geist- und Wasserbad, BWV 165, composed in 1715, stays close to the gospel based on a libretto by the court poet inWeimar,Salomo Franck.[22]
In popular music, Nicodemus's name was used figuratively inHenry Clay Work's 1864American Civil War-era piece "Wake Nicodemus!", an abolitionist song hailing the end of slavery,[23] which at that time was popular inminstrel shows. In 1978Tim Curry covered the song on his debut albumRead My Lips. The song's layered connotations, its anti-slavery sentiment—gave it a connection with "rebirths", and to John's "born again" Nicodemus.[24] By extension, it became associated with the civil rights movement in the§ United States.[25]
Ernst Pepping composed anEvangelienmotette (motet on gospel text)Jesus und Nikodemus in 1937. In 1941,The Golden Gate Quartet, sang the Gospel "God Told Nicodemus", in the African-American Jubilee style. TheBob Dylan song "In The Garden", released on the 1980 albumSaved, contains the lines "Nicodemus came at night so he wouldn't be seen by men / Saying, 'Master, tell me why a man must be born again'".[26] The song "Help Yourself" byThe Devil Makes Three, from their 2009Do Wrong Right album, contains a very informal retelling of the relationship between Nicodemus and Jesus.[27]
The figure of Nicodemus appears in several films and television productions:
During the struggle betweenProtestants andCatholics in Europe, from the 16th century to the 18th, a person professing a creed different from the locally approved one often risked severe penalties—in many cases, capital punishment. There developed the use of "Nicodemite", usually aterm of disparagement, referring to a person who is suspected of public misrepresentation of their actual religious beliefs.[33]: 117–118 [34]The term is recorded from at least 1529, in relation to religious concealment or reticence. It is a reference to the clandestine night visit of Nicodemus to Jesus, suggesting an analogy between the undeclared belief of Nicodemus and the reluctance of some dissenters from (at first) Catholicism to risk being open about their true creed. ToJohn Calvin, who opposed all veneration of saints, the fact of Nicodemus being a Catholic saint in no way exonerated this "duplicity". Calvin used the word in his 1544Excuse à messieurs les Nicodemites referring to religious dissemblers in France—outwardly, conforming Catholics; inwardly, adherents of Protestantism. He was apparently not completely comfortable with the term's allusion to Nicodemus, however; subsequent editions of the work reduced the label's use and later French editions replaced the word with "faux ('false') Nicodemus" instead.[35] While the epithet initially applied tocrypto-protestants, it later came to be used broadly for anyone suspected of exhibiting a false appearance of their religious adherence and concealing their genuine beliefs.[34]
The discussion with Jesus is the source of several common expressions of contemporaryAmerican Christianity, specifically, the descriptive phrase "born again" used to describe salvation orbaptism by some groups, andJohn 3:16, a commonly quoted verse used to describe God's plan of salvation.
TheNicodemus National Historic Site, commemorating the only remaining western town established by African Americans during the Reconstruction Period following theAmerican Civil War, is inKansas. TheNational Park Service indicates the town's name came from the 1864 piece, "Wake Nicodemus" byHenry Clay Work.[36] Some point to the lyrics' use of the nameNicodemus as a figurative reference to the biblical figure.[37][38] In the case of the song, Nicodemus is an enslaved African, long deceased, but acknowledged in the lyrics as both prophet and herald of freedom. The contrast in the lyrics betweennight andmorning, and the enslaved Nicodemus' certainty in what the metaphorical "morning" would bring, have been seen as drawing a parallel to, and being inspired by, the story of the biblical figure. In one story, emancipation, and in the other, salvation, is to come "in the morning"; each Nicodemus has faith in their eventual advent. The lyrics say, in part:[39]
First verse:
Nicodemus, the slave, was of African birth,
And was bought for a bagful of gold; [...]
But he died years ago, very old. [...]
"Wake me up!" was his charge,
at the first break of day–
Wake me up for the great Jubilee!
Chorus:
The "Good Coming" is almost here!
It was long, long, long on the way!
Now run and tell Elijah to hurry up, Pomp
And meet up at the gum tree down in the swamp,
To wake Nicodemus today.
Fourth verse:
'Twas a long weary night – we were almost in fear
That the future was more than he knew;
'Twas a long weary night – but the morning is near,
And the words of our prophet are true. ...
— Extract from "Wake Nicodemus" by Henry Clay Work (1864)
Rosamund Rodman, a researcher and scholar of placenames, noted in a 2008 article that enslaved people who learnt to read generally did so in secret and at night, due to risks of punishment for this forbidden activity. The gospel's Nicodemus came to Jesus to learn from him, also in secret and at night, for fear of repercussions. Such connections and allusions lead Rodman to conclude that the town's name has its ultimate origin with the biblical figure.[37] Religious affairs journalist Daniel Burke notes that, "To blacks after theCivil War, he was a model of rebirth as they sought to cast off their old identity as slaves".[7]
On 16 August 1967,Martin Luther King Jr. invoked Nicodemus as a metaphor concerning the need for the United States to be "born again" in order to effectively address social and economic inequality. The speech was called "Where Do We Go From Here?", and delivered at the 11th Annual SCLC Convention inAtlanta, Georgia.[40]
Ochser, Schulim; Kohler, Kaufmann (1905)."Nicodemus". InSinger, Isidore; et al. (eds.).The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 9. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. pp. 299–300.St. Nicodemus shares an Aug. 31 feast day with another religious leader who helped to bury Jesus — St. Joseph of Arimathea
The name has complex resonances, but clearly signifies new beginnings: the Biblical Nicodemus was a follower of Christ ... also a legendary slave ... who later purchased his freedom. The 1864 song 'Wake Nicodemus' ... recounts another story of Nicodemus, a slave who prophesied a Black Exodus out of slavery. Nicodemus, Kansas, was a town founded in 1877 by former slaves from Kentucky calledExodusters.
Calvin applied it to those converts to Protestantism in Catholic France who outwardly continued RC practices. In modern times Nicodemism covers all forms of religious simulation.
Calvin argues that since the cowardly Nicodemus changed into an honorable and courageous Christian, it is not right to use his name as a defense for timid simulation.
Nicodemus | ||
| Preceded by | New Testament Events | Succeeded by |
