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John 3
Such a Pharisee was Nicodemus, described as “a ruler of the Jews;” by which we are not to understand a civil magistrate, as the civil government was at this time in the hands of the Romans—but an ecclesiastical ruler. In other words, he was a member of the Sanhedrin—a council of seventy members, consisting of distinguished priests, Levites, doctors, or wise men, and elders of the people. To be a member of this dignified assembly was a high distinction—and hence Nicodemus was a person of consequence, whom our Lord himself styles “a master in Israel.”
The Jewish writers make frequent mention of one Nicodemus the son of Gorion, who lived in this age, and was a member of the council—and some have thought this the same with our Nicodemus. The concurrence of name, time, and condition, are favorable to this conclusion. Nicodemus was renowned for his wealth; and that Nicodemus was rich, is shown by the liberal provision of costly spices which he made for our Lord’s burial. In fact, of Nicodemus it is said that he was one of the three richest men in Jerusalem—so wealthy that he might have maintained a city at his own charge for ten years; and was able to give his daughter a dowry of a million golden denarii. But he was afterwards reduced to a most low estate, and his daughter had to beg her bread, which, if he was the same with the present Nicodemus, would be sufficiently explained by the persecutions which would be likely to befall so noted a person, when he at length openly avowed himself an adherent of Jesus. The name of “Nicodemus” is Greek; and it was the custom of this age to have two names, one Greek or Latin, and the other native. It is said that the native name of Nicodemus was Boni, and it is on record that one Boni became a disciple of Jesus. All these are curious coincidences, at least. But we do not press them, and the reader must take them for what it may seem to him they are worth.
Nicodemus came to Jesus by night. This is generally supposed to have been because he was unwilling, without further inquiry, to commit himself, and increase the suspicions of the jealous body to which he belonged, by going in the day time. This is not, however, certain, for it is recorded just before—(Joh_2:24-25)—that Jesus kept himself aloof from personal intercourse with those whom his miracles had impressed, so that there might be no opportunity of gaining his attention but by visiting Him at night; and if this was the night of the same day in which Nicodemus had seen our Lord’s miracles, he could not well have had an earlier opportunity, and the intimation may thus rather be designed to express his impatient alacrity rather than his caution. To which it may be added, that it was very common with the Jewish doctors to meet together for conversation and the study of the law at night, and that to do this was considered highly commendable and meritorious. This at least shows that the procedure of this “master in Israel” was not in any way extraordinary.
Having witnessed the miracles our Lord had wrought, Nicodemus had reached the conviction that He was invested with a Divine calling, but it does not appear that he had attained any clear views of Christ’s person or mission; and his desire to possess more distinct information, must have been the greater, from the expectations in regard to the approaching reign of the Messiah, which the ministrations of John had generally awakened. Of the nature of that reign Nicodemus probably shared the general notion of its temporal character, though he may at the same time have had some more worthy and spiritual ideas concerning it. It does not seem that he had any expectation that Jesus himself was the Messiah; but beholding Him as a divinely commissioned prophet, he repaired to Him for more definite information on that great and interesting subject than he had yet been able to obtain. As a pious Jew and rigid Pharisee, he had no doubt of his share in the Messiah’s kingdom, but he was most anxious to learn when and how it would be manifested. How great then was his astonishment to hear that, son of Abraham as he was—Jew as he was—Pharisee as he was—something more was needful before he or any one else could become a fit subject of the kingdom which the Messiah came to establish, or entitled to a share in its benefits; and that the exaltation of the Messiah was to be of a far different sort than he had thought—a lifting up (upon the cross) in suffering and death, that whosoever looked believingly to Him, as when Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, should not perish, but have everlasting life.
The conversation with Nicodemus is one of the most memorable pages in the Gospel, and differs in an essential particular from the other teachings of Christ. In addressing a well-instructed man—a doctor of the law—Jesus uses a language conformable to the state of mind and knowledge of his new disciple; and it is difficult to seize the prevailing idea without some knowledge of the principles and prejudices of the Jewish theology of that age. The Jews believed that a heathen who became a proselyte, passed through a new birth, and, by being thus new born, cast into oblivion his antecedent connections and relatives in life—and this so literally and effectively, that he might espouse his own mother or sister without offence. The idea and name of a new birth was, therefore, familiar to the Jews; but under a gross and literal apprehension, which was at one time in danger of creeping into the Christian church, and which Paul so forcibly condemns in the Epistles to the Corinthians. Note: 1Co_5:1; 2 Corinthians 11. The astonishment which Nicodemus expressed was, therefore, not at the idea of a new birth in itself, but at the notion that he, as a Jew, should need any such transition in becoming a disciple of Christ. This was so strange and incredible, that he thought he must have misunderstood, and rather fell back upon the absurdity of a natural regeneration, facilitated perhaps more to him than to us, by the general belief in a sort of transmigration of souls. Hence his questions—“How can a man be born when he is old?” etc. “How can these things be?” In answer to which Jesus, in words full of Divine power, disclosed to him the spiritual nature of the kingdom He designed to establish, the essential regenerating change that must pass over those who become the subjects of that kingdom; and, in conclusion, He declared with emphasis the real end and purpose of his coming; and even went so far as to indicate the very form of that death He was to suffer for man’s sake. There were designedly many things in this that Nicodemus could not thoroughly understand till a future day; but he pondered them well; and when that day, yet future, came, he remembered and understood them.