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The raising of Lazarus is reported to the Pharisees, and they make the confession
"This man doeth many miracles. If we let Him thus alone, all men will believe on Him,
and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation" (John 11: 46-48).
Here is valuable testimony indeed, for the very enemies of the Lord admit the fact of the
miracles, yet they are more concerned about the possible loss of prestige, "their place and
nation", than for the truth or Kingdom of God. Again, for the last time, the Pharisees is
allowed to speak. We read:--
"The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing?
behold, the world is gone after Him" (John 12: 19).
With the end of chapter 12: we reach the end of the Lord's public ministry. From
chapter 13: He ministers to His own with the full consciousness that His hour was come
(John 13: 1). At the end of this outer section we meet a few more Nicodemus-like
Rulers:
"Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on Him; but because of the
Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: for
they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God" (John 12: 42, 43).
The reluctant testimony of a non-adherent is of great weight as evidence. This must
be borne in mind as we attempt to assess the value of the recorded visit of Nicodemus, "a
ruler of the Jews".
Though he may have spoken only for himself, it seems probable that Nicodemus,
when he said "We know", intended the Lord to understand that the Rulers and Pharisees
shared his conviction that this new ministry, attested as it was by undoubted miracles,
proved that its Minister was a "Teacher come from God", in spite of His despised
Galilean connection and the fact that He was a Nazarene. The word "Teacher",
didaskalos, is the same as the word "Master", an appellation to which men of
Nicodemus' rank were entitled (John 3: 10), and yet this highly-placed official of the
Sanhedrin approached an unknown, and apparently unlearned, young Visitor from
Galilee by addressing Him as "Rabbi". This was in the nature of an intended concession.
How many have since succumbed to similar approaches only "that day" will reveal. But
we have already been informed that our Lord "knew what was in man", and His "answer"
agreed with this divine knowledge, for instead of touching upon anything that Nicodemus
had "said", it answered the inmost need of his heart. It must have come as a shock to the
pride and beliefs of Nicodemus to have his overtures apparently ignored, and a plain
statement made to him of his need of new birth. John the Baptist warned the Pharisees,
saying, "Think not to say, we have Abraham for our father", and in John 8: we have a
continued argument along the same lines. (John 8: 33, 37, 39, 40, 52, 56, 57, 58).
Nicodemus knew and acknowledged that a proselyte became "new-born", for "if any
one become a proselyte, he is like a child new-born (Feramoth)." Maimonides taught
that the Gentile proselyte was so really like a child new-born, that it became lawful for
him to marry his own mother or the sister of his mother, and it was only forbidden upon
other grounds. This at least will show that the idea could not have been entirely new to