Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin, who showed favor to Jesus. He appears three times in the Gospel of John: the first is when he visits Jesus one night to listen to his teachings (3:1-21); the second is when he states the law concerning the arrest of Jesus during the Feast of Tabernacles (7:45-51); and the last follows the Crucifixion, when he assists Joseph of Arimathea in preparing the corpse of Jesus for burial (19:39-42).
The discussion with Jesus is the source of several common expressions of contemporary Christianity, specifically, the descriptive phrase born again used to describe the experience of believing in Jesus as saviour, and John 3:16, a commonly quoted verse used to describe God's plan of salvation.
An apocryphal work exists, called the Gospel of Nicodemus, which recounts the harrowing of Hell.
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