Nicodemus, << `nihk` uh DEE muhs, >> was a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin , the Jewish court in Jerusalem. The Pharisees were members of a strict Jewish sect that the Gospels portray as opposing Jesus. Nicodemus is mentioned several times in the Gospel of John. He misunderstands Jesus’s teaching that one must be “born from above” as meaning that one must be born a second time physically (John 3). Later, he defends Jesus when other Pharisees and the chief priests of the Jerusalem Temple seek to arrest Jesus (John 7:50-51). Finally, Nicodemus helps Joseph of Arimathea care for and bury Jesus’s dead body (John 19:39-42).
