Enciclopedia Cattolica

NICODEMO

Nicodemus

Volume VIII · p. 1079 · 1952

English translation · Testo originale italiano

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

NICODEMO. - A noble Jew, a disciple of Jesus,
mentioned in the Gospel of St. John: he was a Pharisee,
a ruler of the Jews (Jn. 3:1), a teacher in Israel
(ibid. 3:10), a member of the Sanhedrin (ibid. 7:50), wealthy
and influential (ibid. 19:39).

Article illustration
(Ist. Enc. Catt.) Niceta, Stethatos - Physicurum capitum centuria II - Biblioteca Vaticana, cod. Reg. gr. 25. f. 186° (1523).

Article illustration
(Ist. Abbazia di Solesmes) Nicodemo - Stone sculpture from the late 20th century. Detail of the Sepulchre of Our Lord - Solesmes, abbatial church.

Article illustration
(Ist. Abbazia di Solesmes) Nicodemo - Stone sculpture from the late 15th century. Detail of the Sepulchre of Our Lord - Solesmes, abbatial church.

He went by night to interview Jesus, from whom he received the revelation on the necessity of being born from above (through Baptism) and on the person of the Only-Begotten Savior, who had descended from Heaven (ibid. 3:1-21). He defended Jesus before the Sanhedrin, which sought to condemn Him without hearing Him, and was insulted as a Galilean (ibid. 7:50-52). With Joseph of Arimathea (v.), he embalmed the body of Jesus, bringing about 100 pounds of myrrh and aloe (ibid. 19:39-40).

The rest of his life is uncertain. He is mentioned in the apocryphal Acts of Pilate (v.) or Gospel of Nicodemus. His body is said to have been discovered together with that of St. Stephen and of Abibas at Caphargamala. So according to the legendary Epistula Luciani ad omnem Ecclesiam (PL 41, col. 39) and the Roman Martyrology on August 3. The Greek Menologia and the Syriac one commemorate him on September 15. The Servites and the Passionists commemorate him on March 27, the Copts on July 25. There is no proof to identify this Nicodemus with the rabbi Naqdimon ben Gurjon, who, according to the Talmud, would have lived until the fall of Jerusalem. A Christian legend attributes to Nicodemus the Holy Face venerated in Lucca.

BIBL.: A. Molini, Nicodeme, in DB, IV, cols. 1614-16; U. Holzmeister, Grundgedanke und Gedankengang im Gespräche des Herrn mit Nikodemus, in Zeitschr. f. kath. Theol., 45 (1921), pp. 527-48.