과연 니고데모는 진정한 모범적인 제자인가?

Nicodemus: Is He a Genuine and Model Disciple?

Nicodemus is very unique and even mysterious person in John's Gospel. He appears three times in the Gospel(3:1-21; 7:45-52; 19:38), and his characterization and role is very ambiguous. And the dialogue and response between Jesus and Nicodemus, Nicodemus' defense for Jesus, and his anointing for Jesus' body are very significant event and action to explore the nature and character of his discipleship as Jesus' follower. Thus, this article is to examine the characterization and role of Nicodemus in the given text under the method of narrative criticism. At first glance, the ambiguity of Nicodemus' characterization brings the unsolved prolepses, but the flow of narrative gives the clue to explore the nature of his discipleship by investigating his response and attitude on Jesus and other characters. Traditionally, many scholars characterizes the discipleship of Nicodemus as really faithful and genuine, but the deep narrative analysis of his characterization does not reflect the faithful and genuine discipleship in the Gospel. A more critical analysis of John' portrayal of Nicodemus as judgment of character shows that his discipleship is not a complete model discipleship. The silence and unresolute attitude and response in critical moment is still lack of the genuine discipleship; he never confessed his genuine confession towards Jesus. The identification of his characterization as a model disciple is still doubtful. At most the role of Nicodemus as a narrative character in the Gospel serves a progressive foil to reach the genuine disciple.