You are currently viewing Was Nicodemus a Pharisee? What did Jesus call the Pharisees?

Was Nicodemus a Pharisee? What did Jesus call the Pharisees?

In the Bible, the Pharisees are a politico-religious group who considered themselves the keepers of the Mosaic laws. They are mentioned by Jesus Christ and given as examples of hypocrisy, of people who did not relate their lives to the teaching they promoted. Yet Nicodemus who was a Pharisee and his brothers were not hated by the Jewish people. And Nicodemus was indeed one of them. 

Nicodemus was a Pharisee, and also a member of the Jerusalem Council¹. Jesus says about the Pharisees that they are hypocrites because they are bad people trying to look like they are children of God with good hearts.

Nicodemus was a Pharisee and preached the law as the only way to God. They believed in the existence of angels, the immortality of the soul, and the resurrection from the dead, and were valued by the people for resisting any foreign influences on their faith.

The political-religious grouping of the Pharisees appears in the 2nd century BC. From the very beginning, they declared themselves to be the keepers of Jewish law and fought to remove all Hellenistic influences. In addition to the written law of Moses, which they promoted, the Pharisees also placed great emphasis on oral tradition. The word Pharisee in Hebrew means separate, special, to explain or declare special.

Spiritual meaning of Nicodemus

In the alleys of the deserted fortress, a lonely man, an old man, hurries along the walls. Reaching a house, he knocks on the door. Someone comes and opens it. And suddenly there he is, in the dimly lit room, face to face with the One he wanted to see, to hear, to know, Jesus, whom he says is a “Teacher come from God”.

Nicodemus’ spiritual significance reflects the victory of the people. Nicodemus is the one who wins the victory of God’s people after the crucifixion because only then do they give up everything to follow Him. Before the crucifixion, he was the secret disciple of the Saviour.

The dialogue that was conducted with Nicodemus, one of the Pharisees, ruler of the Jews, and Jesus was one memorized from the pages of Holy Scripture. Scholars² have identified him as a powerful aristocrat of the time. Rabbinic tradition considered him a pious Jew, and some apocryphal sources show that he may have had another name, not Nicodemus, but Buni, who appears to have been doomed to death, since he was a disciple of the Saviour Jesus. Nicodemus was different from the others, he defended the Saviour in the Sanhedrin.

Read also: Why Nicodemus was chosen by God?

Biography of Nicodemus

Full name:Nicodemus
Place of birth:Sea of Galilee
Nationality:Israeli
Date of birth:first century BC
Death day:70 AD
The thread of life:unknown
Children:0
Sect:Pharisee
Summary of life:Nicodemus was a priest from ancient times living in AD, who was saved in the end by Christ.
Life lessons:It is known that he had the Holy Spirit inside him, because in the end he gave up at everything and went to follow Christ, after His resurrection.
Life accomplishments:He gained Christ and eternal life, and he was curious about how can he get into the kingdom of God
Death cause:natural causes. He died because of his age

Biblical places from Nicodemus’ times

  1. Jerusalem- The exact location of Jerusalem and its temple
  2. Kinneret- Is Kinneret located in Jerusalem? Is it the sea?
  3. Mount of Olives- How are Mount Olives described in the Bible?

Why did Nicodemus not follow Jesus?

The Evangelist John emphasizes the care that the well-known Nicodemus who was a Pharisee and showed towards the Lord. And Nicodemus, who had come to him earlier in the night. He came, bringing as it were a hundred liters of myrrh and aloes mixture. Showing his involvement in anointing the Savior’s body before it was buried. Some historians claim that Nicodemus is a martyr, and in a tomb discovered at the beginning of the 5th century. Besides the earthly remains of the first archdeacon and martyr of the Church, Stephen, were those of Nicodemus. Buried on the property of Gamaliel, another great scholar of the Law. A prominent member of the Sanhedrin, who also became a follower of the Saviour Jesus Christ.

 

Nicodemus was a Pharisee who did not follow Jesus at first because he was caught between uncertainty of faith and fear of being kicked out of the Sanhedrin. Being an honest man, he is not content with what his enemies whisper or what his friends say about Jesus, but goes himself, so that he may learn the truth from his mouth. And he has not made that journey in vain. It was not in vain for him to spend that night in conversation with Jesus.

 

For great³ things and great truths his ears heard. The wonderful mystery of every soul’s happiness and salvation was revealed to him: the mystery of being born again, the mystery of the wonderful work of the Holy Spirit.

Was Nicodemus saved?

The Gospel passage tells us that Nicodemus came to the Lord. We don’t know if his thoughts about the Savior were as they should be, or if he still had the probing questions typical of the Jews⁴. He came at night, fearing doing this in the daytime. If he had been seen in the company of the Saviour, he would have lost the high dignities he had. The visit had a special purpose, to turn Nicodemus’ heart toward the true God.

Nicodemus was saved because of his faith in Jesus Christ and in becoming His disciple.

Interpreting his nocturnal visit, Bede the Venerable tells us that Nicodemus came at night, not during the day, because he was not yet enlightened by heavenly grace. Jerusalemite tradition says that the Saviour went to Nicodemus’ house. He had a sumptuous residence near the Temple, for such a personage represented much in Jewish society at that time. He certainly paid close attention to the Saviour Christ, otherwise, he would not have become involved, would not have wanted to ask Him questions, and understand things that others did not have access to. His faith in the Saviour’s teaching took concrete form in his approach to the moment of the burial of the deathless One.

Key Verse related to Jesus’ words about Pharisees

Jesus said to the crowds and his disciples: Nicomedus was a Pharisee and the teachers of the Law are experts in the Law of Moses. So obey everything they teach you, but don’t do as they do. After all, they say one thing and do something else. They pile heavy burdens on people’s shoulders and won’t lift a finger to help. Everything they do is just to show off in front of others. They even make a big show of wearing Scripture verses on their foreheads and arms, and they wear big tassels for everyone to see.

Matthew 23:1-6 (NIV)

nicodemus the pharisee

It is the Pharisees who oppose Jesus, especially since he criticized them for their hypocrisy and formalism. In addition, the Pharisees saw that the popularity of the Saviour was growing, that his message was reaching all classes of society, and that their teaching was losing out to the power of Jesus’ word.

 

Jesus calls the scribes and Pharisees hypocrites because they are not true people of God. Christ the Saviour points to a renewal of man’s being through Baptism. Which also meant a new creation, of water and the Spirit. The old man was crucified with Him, was endowed with great mysteries, a new birth, burial with Him in death, through Baptism.

 

We are not surprised at the troubling of his soul, for what is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Blow where it will mean, in fact, the power and work of the Comforter. The Spirit is carried where he wills, and the work of the Spirit cannot be restrained by the laws of the flesh, nor by the bounds of bodily power.