Who was Nicodemus?
Nicodemus (Nikodemos), which means “Victor of the Free People”, is a Hellenized form for the Aramaic Naqdimon, which means “Innocent Blood” which is also equivalent to “Nathaniel” which means “a man in whom there is no guile” or "victorious". But Naqdimon or Nakdimon can really be a shortened form for haNak Shimon which is the same as Simon the Zealous in Hebrew. From this, it could be understood that he was a descendant of and named after Simon Maccabeus who was also named Simon Thassi (Simeon haTassi, Simon the Zealous b. 142 BC – d. 135 BC), the son of Matthathias, and was considered as the first prince of the Hasmonean dynasty and a Jewish hero who had attained independence for the Jewish state from the Seleucid Empire.
Nicodemus or Simon the Zealous was only an epithet but not really his proper name. He was also called in some texts Nicodemos ben Gurion which means “son of a Lion” or Nicodemos ben Boethus.
Boethus was identified as a certain leader from Alexandria, Egypt belonging to the Beit Essaya or “House of the Essenes”. The said Boethus must be the High Priest Ananel (also Ananelus, Anael, Hanael, or Hananel) who was appointed in 37 or 36 BC by Herod the Great during his appointment as “King of the Jews” by Rome. Ananel was also called Hanameel or Hananel “the Egyptian”.
There was a Nathanael mentioned in the New Testament Bible who was one of the Apostles and identified with Bartholomew, another Apostle. Bartholomew was only an epithet that means “son of Ptolemy” or “descendant of Ptolemy”.
If the Apostles Nathanael and Bartholomew were one and the same person with Nicodemus and he was indeed a Boethusian and a lion (an epithet for Egyptian pharaoh) from Alexandria, Egypt then he must be one of the sons of Cleopatra.
If this was so, then he must no doubt be the youngest son of Cleopatra VII Philopator and Mark Antony – i.e., Ptolemy Philadelphus (Ptolemy “the Loving Brother”) who was lost in history after the murder of his parents by Octavian (Augustus Caesar). It was said that as an infant he was put inside a basket and was placed in a fig tree where priests used to study the Torah to hide and saved him from slaughter. It must be the legendary basket of Cleopatra.
Given this assumption is true then he must be hidden in 30 BC by one of the members of the Essenes who must most probably be the High Priest Ananel who might be related to the Maccabean and to Cleopatra from the Davidic line of Solomon. Ptolemy Philadelphus, according to the historian William Woodthorpe Tarn, was born between August-September 36 BC in Alexandria, Egypt.
Another probability is, Nicodemus was the Ptolemy mentioned as the brother of Nicolaus of Damascus. Nicolaus of Damascus, a Hellenized Jew, was the tutor of the sons of Cleopatra and Mark Antony. So it is very probable that he had snatched the infant Ptolemy Philadelpus upon the order of Cleopatra away from Octavian (Augustus Caesar) and hid it inside the fig tree where the High Priest Hananel was usually resting and studying the Torah. During the reign of Herod the Great, this Ptolemy served in his court as an accountant or bookkeeper and he was also entrusted with the royal seal.
The name Nathanael or Nathaniel means in Hebrew as “gift (Nathan) of God (El)”. He must be the one named as Simon ben Nathanael who married Imma Shalom (Mary Salome), daughter of Gamaliel the Elder, the husband of Mary Sovia (Sophia), sister of Hannah (Anna), the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Hence, Nicodemus was also known in Jewish texts as Simeon ben Gamaliel.
Mary Salome was the midwife of the infant Jesus and was called in some texts as “the Temptress” for she questioned the virgin birth of Jesus who later found out the truth that the Blessed Virgin Mary was actually a virgin who brought forth a son and remained physically virgin after giving birth to Jesus. It was told that the hand of Mary Salome which she used in testing the virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was afflicted with the radiation coming from the virgin’s vagina and was healed only after she touched and exalted the infant Jesus asking for forgiveness and declaring him as the living God, son of the Ever Virgin Mary.
Nicodemus had six known children with Mary Salome, namely:
1) Elizabeth who was married to Matthias ben Theophilus (or simply Theophilus), who was also known as Zacarias (most probably a member of the Sicarii) and begot a son named John the Baptist (Yohanan ben Zakkai).
John the Baptist was the one mentioned in the New Testament Bible as "the beheaded son of a widow in Caparnaum" who was resurrected by Jesus Christ. Among the Mandaeans, John the Baptist is called as Yahya which has the same meaning with John which means "God is gracious". He was married to Anhar (which means "rivers" in Syriac; it closest equivalent in Hebrew is Miriam or Mary which means "rising water") and begot children, namely: a daughter known as Joanna ben Boethus. Joanna means "God is gracious" which has a similar meaning with the Arabic name R'himat-Haiye, one of the names of the children of John the Baptist mentioned in other text. Full list of the children of John the Baptist and Anhar (Mary) were: Sharrat and Handan; Birham and R'himat-Haiye; and Nzab, Sam, and Anhar-Ziwa. Anhar might be a sister of the Nabataean princess Phasaelis, the daughter of Aeneas (Aretas IV) and the first wife of Herod Antipas, who was a member of the Essenes. Anhar was also called as Miriai (Mary) and often scolded by her father as a "prostitute" for always going out listening to John the Baptist and going home late at night.
John the Baptist must be one and the same person with Jonathan the High Priest, the son of Theophilus ben Ananus who was one and the same person with Matthias ben Theophilus who was also called as Zacarias, who was called in the Talmud as Jochanan ben Zakai. Jonathan the High Priest, the resurrected John the Baptist, was assassinated by the Sicarii led by Doras, his treacherous trusted friend, upon the bribery and order of Antonius Felix, the Roman procurator of the province who had enmity with him over accusation of governing Jewish affairs and the threat of being reported to Caesar by doing so, shortly after he was announced High Priest of Israel in 58 AD.
2) Martha ben Boethus who was no other than Mariamne, the so-called "daughter" (more probably a granddaughter) of Antigonus II Mattathias, who at the age of 15 was married to Herod Antipater in 6 BC. Mariamne was a title for a Hasmonean princess which was equivalent to Mary.
Upon Herod Antipater's death in 4 BC, she became a widow. The Talmud mentioned her to have a priest son who with his herculean strength could lift up two sides of an ox and placed it at the altar of the Temple with ease.
There were two apostles mentioned by the New Testament Bible who were named by Jesus Christ as the Boanerges (from Greek boa "ox" and energes "energy") in reference to their herculean strength of lifting an ox. The said apostles were the brothers James and John. If the Boanerges were the sons of Martha ben Boethus then her first husband was the wealthy owner of a fishing business named Zebedee who was mentioned in the New Testament Bible.
It is interesting to note that there was a priest named as Yishmael ben Pi'avi who was appointed as High Priest by the Roman procurator, Valerius Gratus, in 15 AD. It could mean that he was 20 years old at that time and he must been born in 5 BC. He was the last among the list of high priests who had offered red heifers at the altar, for the ritual purification of Tum'at HaMet, prior to the destruction of the Temple. He was considered as "the handsomest man of his time, whose effeminate love of luxury was the scandal of the age."
The name Yishmael is equivalent to Simeon or Simon while Pi'avi (Phiabi) has a similar sound with Zeh-ave' which means "wolf". Interestingly, Zebedee in Hebrew lexicon can be rendered as "Zeh-ave' diy" which means "That Wolf" or "Wolf Leader". If this is the case, then Zebedee is only an epithet of Herod the Great whom Jesus Christ addressed as "That Fox" (or more correctly "that jackal") in Luke 13:32. Herod the Great must be the one called as Phabet ben Boethus. It must be his supposed priestly name if he had not been disqualified of becoming the High Priest. But the Zebedee being mentioned as the father of Simon (Peter) was not Herod the Great but Herod Antipater (Antipater II), his son from his first wife Doris. And the Zebedee mentioned as the father of James and John was Herod Archelaus, the son of Herod the Great with Malthace the Samaritan.
In some text, it was Simon, the "son" (more correctly grandson) of Nicodemus, who was groom at the Wedding at Cana in 27 AD. His bride, Joanna must be only 13 years old at that time and he was already 31 years old. It was also mentioned in the same text that the one who officiated the wedding was Nathanael (Nicodemus) who was supposed to go to Leontopolis (Heliopolis) but was stopped by Jesus Christ.
Simon called the Rock, in connotation of his image as Quzah the storm-god who was carved on a rock in Petra, had a son named Mark (the Evangelist), or John Mark, with Joanna ben Boethus, the daughter of John the Baptist with Anhar (who was also called Mary) and the granddaughter of Gamaliel I the Elder.
If this Yishmael son of Zebedee was actually Simon (called Peter, Kepha, Qufa or Quzah) then James, who was also called Jude the Brave (Lebbaeus, Thaddeus, and Andrew) and Jude the Twin (Thomas and Didymus), was his brother. And John, the twin of James, was also his brother. It could be very probable that James and John were sons of Martha ben Boethus with Herod Archelaus, another Herod, another Pi-avi' (also Phiabi, Phabet, and Fabus) or Zebedee or "That Fox" or "That Jackal" or "That Wolf". Martha ben Boethus also known as Mariamne, a royal title for Hasmonean princess, had been married to Herod Archelaus ("leading the people") after the execution of Herod Antipater. But Herod Archelaus divorced her in order to marry Glaphyra.
John was also known as Elioneus which was an epithet of Dionysus (Bacchus) as "god of wine" from "adonai or eli (god)" and "oeneus (wine)", hence also called as Adoneus. His great grandfather Mark Antony also used Dionysus as his epithet. As Elioneus, he was regarded as the "son" (grandson) of Nicodemus who was also known as Simon "Kantharos" (referring either to the Holy Grail used by Jesus Christ in the Last Supper or the cup used in the wine cult of the Greek god Dionysus) which might be due to the wrong interpretation of Zebedee to Zebediah (gift of God). He was also wrongly regarded as the brother of Martha of Bethany and Mary of Bethany. But Martha of Bethany and Mary of Bethany were one and the same persons with Martha ben Boethus and Mariamne II ben Boethus, hence they were actually his aunts.
John died due to leprosy and after the fourth day of his death he was resurrected by Jesus Christ and from thence on he was called as Lazarus which meant "raised from the dead". He was the one referred to as John the Apostle and John the Evangelist, the "Beloved of Christ". After the news of his resurrection, Caiaphas along with his four brothers who were members of the Sanhedrin were plotting to assassinate him along with the other Apostles for which Gamaliel the Elder disapproved. Hence, the sole target became Jesus Christ.
It was mentioned in "The Secret Gospel of Mark", that six days after John's (Lazarus) resurrection, Jesus Christ was arrested and John fled to the other side of the Jordan which was Ramtha (Arimathaea), a town near the river, that flowed west into the Jordan River just below the exit of the Sea of Galilee. John was also called as Joses (Joseph). He was the same person called Joseph of Arimathaea, the guardian of the Kantharos (the Holy Grail). His proper name must be John Joseph.
There was also a High Priest named Jesus ben Phiabi who might be the one referred in the New Testament Bible as Jesus the brother of James, John, and Simon. He must be the son of Herod Antipater with Mariamne III, the daughter of Aristobulus IV and Berenice. He must been born in 28 BC and was appointed High Priest in 8 BC but was later replaced by Nicodemus. Thus, he was the half-brother of Simon, James, and John.
It was said that Martha bribed a certain King Jannai to appoint Judas Iscariot (Judas the Galilean) as High Priest and repeal the Jewish law that would consummate the marriage between a high priest and a widow or a non-virgin girl.
The King Jannai meant must be Archelaus whose name meant "leading the people" just like Zebedee, that wolf or wolf-leader. Herod Archelaus had actually repeated the racial slur committed by his ancestor Alexander Jannaeus against the Jews by slaughtering 3,000 people in the Temple including two teachers and forty young youth.
Martha must have forced Herod Archelaus to appoint Judas Iscariot, her secret lover, as the High Priest as part of her condition to agree with the divorce. And she paid him an amount of the price of a fox.
Judas Iscariot was actually one of the heirs of the kingship of Judea following the Davidic line. He had been reported dead by committing suicide after his betrayal of Jesus Christ in the manner of how the Idumean mythical hero Nadan (Nathan) died. But in reality Judas Iscariot assumed another identity as Jesus (Judas) of Gamala or Jesus (Judas) Barabbas. Barabbas could mean in Aramaic as "son of a lion", "son of the father", "son of shame" and "son of perdition". It was an epithet equivalent to Yaldabaoth, the king of chaos, one of the three archons of the kingdom of darkness in Gnosticism which is equivalent to the Greek phrase "yhios apoleia" which means "son of perdition" or "son of destruction".
3) Mariamne II was betrothed at the age of 12 to Herod the Great in 6 BC and married with him at 5 BC and begot a son from him named Herod II or Herod Boethus (the father of Salome, daughter of Herodias) who was also called as Herod Philip I (he must be the Apostle Philip associated with Nathanael Bartholomew) in 4 BC. In Jewish texts, she was called as the “fairest among women” during her times whose beauty struck Herod the Great making him appoint Nicodemus as the High Priest in order to marry her. Herod the Great divorced her after she was implicated with Antipater’s assassination plot against him and had taken out Herod II from his will.
Mariamne II might be the same person as the Cleopatra of Jerusalem mentioned by Josephus but the story might be convoluted with the visit of Cleopatra VII of Egypt in Judea during the reign of Herod the Great. Her two supposed sons Herod and Philip were one and the same person as Herod II (Herod Philip or simply Philip).
Mariamne II was better known as Mary Magdalene and Mary of Bethany, a devout follower of John the Baptist and later of Jesus Christ. It was mentioned in other texts that she often disguised herself as a man and was considered as an Apostle of Jesus Christ.
Mariamne II was also wrongly addressed as "sister" of her son Philip the Apostle who was same person as Philip the Evangelist (Herod II) in the Acts of Philip while she and her father Nicodemus, who was addressed as Bartholomew (son of Ptolemy), accompanied him on a Christian mission to Hierapolis where the three of them were tortured and Philip was martyred.
In Romans 16:7, Nicodemus was addressed in the Latinized Greek form of his name which was Andronicus, "victor of the people", while Mariamne II (Mary Magdalene), who was dressed like a man, was addressed as Junia, "her father's junior", which was indeed true being Cleopatros and Cleopatra. The father-daughter duo must also be the pair referred to as Abercius and Helena. Abercius is a Romanized Aramaic form of "ben Gurion" which means "son of a lion" from "abi" (son) and "arriok" (of lion) while Helena is a Romanized Greek form pertaining to Helen of Troy. Nicodemus used "ben Gurion" as one of his epithets being an heir of the lost crown of Egypt and Judaea while Mariamne II (Mary Magdalene) used the epithet of Helen of Troy being considered the "fairest among women during her times" thus addressed as the "prostitute from Tyre" referring to the Pistis Sophia or Lady Wisdom.
If Mariamne II (Mary Magdalene) was indeed Helena, the prostitute bought by a certain Simon Magus from a brothel in Tyre and said to be possessed by seven demons, then it would be very probable that she was among the inhabitants of the tower (Magdala) in Sepphoris who were taken into slavery by Varus to Antioch after the massacre in Judea in 4 BC.
It could be remembered that a messianic revolt led by Judas Iscariot occured in Judaea after the death of Herod the Great in 4 BC. It was known that Judas Iscariot was supported by his foster father and grandfather, the High Priest Zedekiah (Zadok) or Hezekiah whose real name was Matthan or Matthanaiah, who was later replaced after his death by Joazar ben Boethus who was also replaced by his younger brother Eleazar ben Boethus after a year. Due to the rebellion, Publius Quinctilius Varus, the Roman governor of Syria, with his four legions went to Judaea, burned the city of Sepphoris including Magdala, and crucified 2000 Jewish rebels. Herod Archelaus with his army attacked the Temple and murdered a thousand which included two teachers of Jewish law (mentioned in Talmud as Zadok and Shammai) and forty youth.
In the Talmud, Mary ben Boethus (Mariamne II) was depicted to have gone crazy while embracing her infant son covered in blood and while almost being killed by seven Roman soldiers who left her thinking that she devoured her own son. It could be understood that Mariamne II lost her sanity upon the thought that her son was dead and upon the sight of her burning city and the crucifixion of 2000 Jewish rebels and massacre of a thousand people in the Temple. She must be the Queen Regent, with the royal title Cleopatra of Jerusalem, of the tetrachy assigned to her son Philip (Herod II). It was mentioned that she was healed, in the name of Jesus Christ, by Simon Peter and she was married to Simon Magus, a Samaritan, who was accordingly converted into Christianity by her son Philip.
4) Joses (Joseph of Elemus or more popularly known as Joseph of Nazareth) who was also known as Joazar ben Boethus. He was the High Priest who replaced Nicodemus in 5 BC. But he left to Egypt in 4 BC with the Blessed Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus Christ after the massacre of infants by Herod Archelaus upon the order of Herod the Great.
Shortly after, Herod the Great died. A group of people led by the young Judas Iscariot revolted but 2,000 of them were captured by Varus and crucified. Herod Archelaus upon learning the involvement of Zadok with the sedition plot went to the Temple probably to demand the surrender of the leader of the rebel but when his demand was not met he massacred 3,000 people in the Temple including Zadok and Shammai and forty young priests.
It was on this occasion the people demanded Herod Archelaus a replacement of Joazar ben Boethus with a "more piety and purity". Herod Archelaus was forced to appoint and install Eleazar ben Boethus, younger brother of Joazar ben Boethus.
5) James (Jacob) who was also known as Eleazar Boethus. He was a High Priest from 4 BC to 3 BC. He was one of the Apostles.
6) Levi who was also called as Matthias (Matthew), the tax collector. He was one of the Apostles.
Nicodemus must be the same person with Heliphaeus (Alphaeus) or Koryphaeus or Clopas, Hellenized form of the Aramaic name Qlopha which means "choir leader" equivalent to his other epithet Ananias (Hananiah), and Cleopas, a shortened form of Cleopatros, which denotes him as "son of Cleopatra".
Steven Donald Norris in his book, Unraveling the Family History of Jesus, theorizes that Joseph of Nazareth was son of Jacob and Cleopatra VII and a brother of Cleopas and a certain Ptolas. But this was very impossible since Cleopatra had only three sons, one from Julius Caesar and two from Mark Antony and not from Jacob. It was more plausible that Nicodemus, the real Cleopatros or youngest son of Cleopatra was the one mentioned in the New Testament Bible as Heli from Heliphaeus (Alphaeus) and the biological father of Joseph of Nazareth who was no other than Joazar ben Boethus who was also called as Joses or Joseph of Elemus or Joseph of Nazareth.
Joazar ben Boethus (Joseph of Nazareth) had been restored as the High Priest in 1 AD after his return from Egypt with Mary and the 5-year old Jesus. But he was replaced by Ananus ben Seth (also called Annas) in 6 AD after another revolt led by Judas Iscariot.
The last mention of Joseph of Nazareth in the New Testament Bible was when Jesus Christ was already twelve years old, in 8 AD. It was mentioned that Joseph with Mary was searching for the young Jesus and found him discoursing with the Jewish priests who were amazed with the young boy's mastery of the Torah.
It was mentioned in some Jewish texts that Jesus Christ was temporarily appointed as the High Priest after the High Priest Ishmael ben Phiabi (Simon Peter) had erred in the ritual preparation of purification in 16 AD. Jesus Christ appeared in the Jewish records of High Priests as Jesus the son of Mary the Ever Virgin and of the Living God. Jesus Christ must have served as High Priest only for the ritual purification of Tum'at HaMet.
Ishmael ben Phiabi (Simon Peter) was deposed by Valerius Gratus and was replaced by Eleazar ben Ananus (also called Annas) as High Priest. But he was reinstated as Simon Kantharos ben Boethus in 41-42 AD and again in 58 to 62 AD. It could be understood that he left Jerusalem and functioned as the first bishop of Rome (pope) where he was martyred between 64-68 AD. He was replaced as High Priest by Elioneus (who was also called John, Joseph or more correctly John Joseph, and Lazarus) who served as High Priest in 43-44 AD and 62-63 AD.
The Jacob mentioned as the father of Joseph of Nazareth must be his father-in-law. This Jacob, who was the husband of Eucharia, must be the Joachim mentioned in other texts as the husband of Anna. The name Eucharia is derived from the Greek word eukharis which means "gracious" while Anna is a Hellenized Hebrew for hannah which means "grace". Hence there is no doubt that Anna was the same person as Eucharia. Jacob (Joachim) and Eucharia (Anna) were the biological parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Miriam).
Nicodemus was mentioned, along with his family, to be present during the Crucifixion.
In most accounts, Nicodemus died a martyr.