John 3:1 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

JOHN CHAPTER 3 1 Thessalonians 3:1-13 Christ, in a conference with Nicodemus, teacheth him the necessity of regeneration, 1 Thessalonians 3:14,15 the efficacy of faith in his death. 1 Thessalonians 3:16,17 God's great love to mankind in sending his Son for their salvation, 1 Thessalonians 3:18-21 and the condemnation for unbelief. 1 Thessalonians 3:22 Jesus baptizeth in Judea, 1 Thessalonians 3:23,24 as doth John in Aenon. 1 Thessalonians 3:25-36 John's doctrine concerning Christ. The particle there being put in only to fit our idiom to the Greek, where is nothing but the verb, signifies nothing to prove that what we read in this chapter was done at Jerusalem. It is a dispute amongst some interpreters, whether he was there or no. It should seem by 1 Thessalonians 7:50, that Nicodemus's chief residence was there. He was one of the Pharisees, who were a sect (as we have showed before) which had their name either from a Hebrew word, which signifieth to explain, (because they were expounders of the law), or from another word, which signifieth to divide, because they were separate from others: the opinions have both learned patrons. This man's name in Greek signifies, The victory of the people. He was either the head of a family among the Jews, or a ruler of the synagogue, or one of the sanhedrim: it seemeth most probable he is here called a ruler upon the last account, if we consider 1 Thessalonians 7:50.