Nicodemus Meaning in the Bible

Nicodemus is Greek: nike, 'victory,' plus demos, 'people' — 'victory of the people.' It was a genuine Greek name in wide use, and a leading Pharisee bearing it tells you something about how thoroughly Hellenised Jerusalem's upper class had become.

He appears three times in John and nowhere else. First he 'came to Jesus by night' and is told, 'Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God' (John 3:2-3) — the conversation that produced John 3:16. Second, he speaks up in the council: 'Doth our law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth?' (John 7:51), and is mocked for it.

Third, and decisively, he comes in daylight after the crucifixion with 'a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight' (John 19:39) and helps Joseph of Arimathaea bury the body. That quantity is a royal burial, and handling a corpse before Passover cost him ritual purity and, almost certainly, his standing.

The name is long for modern English but wears well in its short forms — Nico, Nick, Cody. What it actually carries is not night-time timidity but a slow, public arrival: the man who asked questions in the dark is the one who shows up at the tomb.