Did Nicodemus read Psalm 87?

Samuel_23 · September 1, 2025, 11:46am

Is it the same answer as before:

About Nicodemus, pardon me if I’m wrong.
I think the answer lies in the distinction between natural and revelatory knowledge, and the noetic effects of the Fall.
he was a master of Torah, a Pharisee, a member of the Sanhedrin. He possessed the very “word of instructions”. Yet, his approach to Jesus was characterized by a fundamental epistemological error: he believed that the mysteries of the Kingdom of God could be comprehended through natural reason and academic studies.
The OT, which Nicodemus knew, is suffused with the theme of SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION, which necessitates a divine act upon human heart, like some examples I can give are:
Ezekiel 36:26-27:
”I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees”

Jeremiah 31:33:
”I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.”

Deuteronomy 30:6:
”The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.”

So was Nicodemus’s fault, a lack of evidence from the OT?
Surely not, for the OT was like a veil at the temple and it ultimately points to Christ. Nicodemus’s failure was lack of spiritual perception. Many, including him, read Scriptures as a legal and historical text, waiting for a king that would rule over the whole land, and destroy the Romans, but man….they were blind to the pneumatological and transformative telos of the Scriptures.
He understood the external requirement of the Law, but missed it central promise.
And yes, @Pater15 shall we discuss more…