ABSTRACT
Nicodemus is an enigmatic character who appears in the New Testament only three times, all in the Gospel of John (John 3:1-21; 7:45-52; 19:38-42). His character has received a considerable amount of scholarly attention in recent decades. The Johannine narrator does not give much information about the inner life of his various characters, which means that scholars have been compelled to draw conclusions as to the motives of these characters mainly from their external behaviour. In the case of Nicodemus, scholars have arrived at very different conclusions concerning his role and function in John’s narrative. For some, Nicodemus is an example of someone of inadequate faith who remains an outsider throughout the narrative, while others have traced his development from initial and tentative faith to open and public commitment to Jesus. Still others have acknowledged that no single trait determines Nicodemus’ portrait, but, in the end, this portrait remains ambiguous.
