Nicodemus

Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin, a prominent Jew of the time of Christ who is mentioned only in the Fourth Gospel. The Catholic Encyclopedia notes that his name is of Greek origin, though such names were occasionally borrowed by Jews of that period, and that a Hebrew form, Naqdimon, appears in the Talmud. In the Gospel he comes to Jesus by night and is called a master in Israel, he later speaks in the Sanhedrin in defence of the accused Galilean, and he joins Joseph of Arimathea in the embalming and burial of Jesus. The article judges from John 19:39 that he was a man of means. His name later appears in apocryphal writings such as the Acts of Pilate, published in the sixteenth century as the Gospel of Nicodemus, and the Roman Martyrology commemorates the finding of his relics on 3 August.