Gospel of Nicodemus
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46
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10
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Search complete. 46 mentions across 10 episodes found for "Gospel of Nicodemus".
Sep 17, 2026
JTHOST
Good for them to see us, and we're very glad that you guys are here once again.
JTHOST
We're super excited to get back into the gospel of Nicodemus and the Acts of Pilate.
JTHOST
I think we kind of teased last week.
JTHOST
We're kind of getting into... we've gone through a lot of good stuff, but I think we're going to kind of get into the more fun stuff because the stuff we've read so far is literally just like elaborating on the story that is in the gospel.
34 MINS LATER
JTHOST
We're going to treat these guys good now.
Josh TruaxHOST
He said the rest of his days he was going to honor him, at least the Septuagint does.
JTHOST
Okay, I got a video I want to play because it kind of piggybacks on the last study we did into the Gospel of Nicodemus.
JTHOST
And before we do that, Josh, please tell us about Modern Roots Life.
Alan MapstoneNARRATOR
And C, those relating to the history of Pilate.
Alan MapstoneNARRATOR
The origins of the traditions are the Proto-Evangelium of James, the Gospel of Thomas, and the Acts of Pilate.
Alan MapstoneNARRATOR
All or most of the others can be referred to these three as compilations, modifications, or amplifications.
Alan MapstoneNARRATOR
There is abundant evidence of the existence of many of these traditions in the second century, though it cannot be made out that any of the books were then in existence in their present form.
8 MINS LATER
Alan MapstoneNARRATOR
There are not sufficient data for fixing with any accuracy the time at which it was composed or compiled.
Alan MapstoneNARRATOR
The Gospel of Nicodemus.
Alan MapstoneNARRATOR
The six documents inserted under this name are various forms of two books, two in Greek and one in Latin of the Acts of Pilate, one in Greek and two in Latin of the Descent of Christ to the World Below.
Alan MapstoneNARRATOR
Of twelve manuscripts, only two or three give the second part consecutively with the first, nor does it so appear in the Coptic translation.
Eleanor JanegaHOST
In the early medieval period, new Christians searching for answers on the afterlife turned to a host of different stories and traditions.
Eleanor JanegaHOST
Apocryphal texts, like the Vision of Saint Paul and the Gospel of Nicodemus, proved hugely popular.
Eleanor JanegaHOST
They offered new and surprising visions of the afterlife, becoming the medieval equivalent of New York Times bestsellers.
Eleanor JanegaHOST
And as these stories traveled across medieval Europe, they changed.
12 MINS LATER
Stephen HopkinsGUEST
That is that they are, they occupy what I would say is a liminal space in medieval taxonomies of knowledge, which is just a jargony way of saying they're in between.
Stephen HopkinsGUEST
They look and sound like scripture, so some people felt free to revere them.
Stephen HopkinsGUEST
You know, if you don't have many books to read in general, the Gospel of Nicodemus does sound a lot like the canonical gospels, especially 'cause it borrows so many verses straight from them.
Stephen HopkinsGUEST
So on the one hand, some people felt free to revere apocrypha, but because they're not actually scripture, some people felt free to revise them.
JTHOST
It's centered around Bible topics.
JTHOST
It's centered around things we found in scripture, and then obviously our Bible studies, like again, as we continue today with the gospel of Nicodemus.
JTHOST
Anyways, I just thought I'm really encouraged about that.
Josh TruaxHOST
Yeah, it's, that's-- I was-- You sent me that text, and that was really cool to see, especially when you get to see the metrics 'cause I'm just now getting into having a YouTube channel that I actually pay attention to and use.
speaker_2NARRATOR
The Acts of Xanthippe and Polyxena is a clear imitation of these by a Christian hand.
speaker_2NARRATOR
The latter part of the Gospel of Nicodemus will illustrate romance attaching itself to the Gospel.
speaker_2NARRATOR
The Apocalypse of Paul will show us a link in a great series of visions of hell and give us a hint of a great movement which was not merely pictured in the life of Antony but immensely promoted by it.
speaker_2NARRATOR
The story of Clitophon and Leucippe is told by Achilles Tatius in eight books.
21 MINS LATER
speaker_2NARRATOR
To give the story a flavor of life, Clement is represented as in search of his family, who are all scattered by a series of accidents recalling the Greek novel, and who are all found again by the help of Peter and Providence.
speaker_2NARRATOR
From Xanthippe and Polyzena we pass to a work of more importance, a work of genius.
speaker_2NARRATOR
It is now embedded in the so-called Gospel of Nicodemus, a 13th century title for a combination of two much older books, the Acts of Pilate and the Descent into Hell.
speaker_2NARRATOR
The former is a rather tiresome expansion of the Gospel narrative of the crucifixion, resulting in the whitewashing of Pilate to some extent, and the latter is attached to it by a very simple device.
Stephen C.E. HopkinsGUEST
And I was really interested in that scene and sort of like how spooky it is.
Stephen C.E. HopkinsGUEST
And so I started digging into the sources and analogs, and inevitably, a lot of the scholars said, well, really, if you want to understand this scene, you should read the Gospel of Nicodemus.
Stephen C.E. HopkinsGUEST
And I was like, the Gospel of what? You know, like, I was familiar with the four canonical Gospels, but hearing about this fifth Gospel really caught my attention.
Stephen C.E. HopkinsGUEST
And so that's got me down the rabbit hole of Apocrypha in general.
Stephen C.E. HopkinsGUEST
And then colon, then you get all the books.
Stephen C.E. HopkinsGUEST
Some of those items are you know, fairly obscure.
Stephen C.E. HopkinsGUEST
Some of them are quite well known, like the Gospel of Nicodemus or the Vision of St. Paul.
Stephen C.E. HopkinsGUEST
But what's ironic about that list, of course, is that it was extremely popular.
Geoffrey EdwardsNARRATOR
Those relating to the history of Pilate.
Geoffrey EdwardsNARRATOR
The origins of the traditions are the Proto-Evangelium of James, the Gospel of Thomas, and the Acts of Pilate.
Geoffrey EdwardsNARRATOR
All or most of the others can be referred to these three as compilations, modifications, or amplifications.
Geoffrey EdwardsNARRATOR
There is abundant evidence of the existence of many of these traditions in the second century, though it cannot be made out that any of the books were then in existence in their present form.
8 MINS LATER
Geoffrey EdwardsNARRATOR
There are not sufficient data for fixing with any accuracy the time at which it was composed or compiled.
Geoffrey EdwardsNARRATOR
The Gospel of Nicodemus.
Geoffrey EdwardsNARRATOR
The six documents inserted under this name are various forms of two books, two in Greek and one in Latin of the Acts of Pilate, one in Greek and two in Latin of the Descent of Christ to the World Below.
Geoffrey EdwardsNARRATOR
Of twelve manuscripts, only two or three give the second part consecutively with the first, nor does it so appear in the Coptic translation.
speaker_2NARRATOR
The Acts of Xanthippe and Polyxena is a clear imitation of these by a Christian hand.
speaker_2NARRATOR
The latter part of the Gospel of Nicodemus will illustrate romance attaching itself to the Gospel.
speaker_2NARRATOR
The Apocalypse of Paul will show us a link in a great series of visions of hell and give us a hint of a great movement which was not merely pictured in the life of Antony but immensely promoted by it.
speaker_2NARRATOR
The story of Clitophon and Leucippe is told by Achilles Tatius in eight books.
20 MINS LATER
speaker_2NARRATOR
To give the story a flavour of life, Clement is represented as in search of his family, who are all scattered by a series of accidents recalling the Greek novel, and who are all found again by the help of Peter and Providence.
speaker_2NARRATOR
From Xanthippe and Polyxena we pass to a work of more importance, a work of genius.
speaker_2NARRATOR
It is now embedded in the so-called Gospel of Nicodemus, a thirteenth-century title for a combination of two much older books: The Acts of Pilate and The Descent into Hell.
speaker_2NARRATOR
The former is a rather tiresome expansion of the Gospel narrative of the Crucifixion, resulting in the whitewashing of Pilate to some extent, and the latter is attached to it by a very simple device.
Mark OllyGUEST
You've got to jump through a lot of hoops to get to that, okay? Um, you've gotta, you know, have Jesus as a child traveling with his uncle, who happens to be a Cornish tin miner, you know? And, and it, it's like I, I, I'm very shoot it's a duck, you know? If there's something in writing, I'll pursue it.
Mark OllyGUEST
Uh, and like you said, I think there's something like the Evangelii, Evangelii Nicodemi or something is a, is, is from the fourth century.
Mark OllyGUEST
It's got all the thing to do with Joseph in it.
Mark OllyGUEST
It's in the Vatican Library.
Mark OllyGUEST
I mean, bear in mind I'm doing this from memory.
Mark OllyGUEST
Um, it's a written source, and it's, you know, within the first 300 years of the church history.
Mark OllyGUEST
Uh, there's also things like, uh, I'm trying to remember this, Gospel of Pilate I think has quite a lot about Joseph in it.
Mark OllyGUEST
Uh, there's a lot of these extracanonical gospels that we know were around.
1 more episode mentions Gospel of Nicodemus.
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