“a man of the Pharisees” is an unusual expression and is used by John intentionally to link to the preceding verse.  Jesus knew what was in this man Nicodemus and acted accordingly.

The personal application of this fact is that He knows what is in you, too. He knew every sin you would ever commit and every weakness you would have, and yet He chose you for his own while you were still in the world. Jesus knows you and He loves you and He trusts you to become what He knows you can be.

Pharisees = means “separated ones” and consisted of a brotherhood of Jews who had entered into association by taking a pledge that they would spend the rest of their lives in obeying every detail of the Law. The Pharisees never numbered more than 6,000. They thought that the Law, the first 5 books of the Old Testament, contained everything a man needed to live a good life, so they surmised that the Law must contain principles of law for every possible incident a man might encounter. Based on these assumptions, they set about to define the generalizations in the Law by an infinite number of regulations and rules to apply to every situation. This codified law was called the Mishnah. It was so expanded that the section on observing the Sabbath ran for 24 chapters. The Talmud is the explanatory commentary on the Mishnah and necessarily runs even longer.

Some examples of detailed laws to keep the Sabbath are as follows: a woman was forbidden to look into a mirror on the Sabbath because she might see a white hair and pull it and that act would be “work”. To tie a knot of the camel drivers or a knot of the sailors was outlawed as work on the Sabbath whereas knots that could be tied with one hand were quite legal. Due to this particular law, a man could not let a bucket down into a well by tying a rope to it, but it was permissible to tie his wife’s girdle to the bucket so he could let it down! A Sabbath Day’s journey was defined as 2,000 cubits (about 1,000 yards) but this was circumvented by tying a rope (before the Sabbath of course!) across the end of the street on which one lived thus making the street their house. Also, a man could deposit food at various locations on Friday thus technically making each his “home” and could go a thousand yards beyond each on the Sabbath. The rules and regulations piled up but not any faster than the evasions.

It was the scribes who made these regulations, but it was the Pharisees who dedicated their lives to keeping them. They were certainly misguided, but their earnestness to undertake obedience to these thousands of rules could not be faulted.

“a ruler of the Jews” = a member of the Sanhedrin, the court of 70 members who had religious authority over every Jew in the world.

Nicodemus was a rather timid soul who sought after the truth. We see Nicodemus again in John 7:50-53 where He timidly defends Jesus before his fellow members of the Sanhedrin, and again in John 19:39 where He assists Joseph of Arimathea in the burial of Jesus.  He obviously overcame his timidity and declared himself for Christ at a time when all of Jesus’ disciples had deserted Him and grave consequences were in probable store for any of His followers. This shows the effect the following teaching had upon Nicodemus.

John 7:50-53  Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he is doing?”  They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.” Then each went to his own home.

John 19:39  He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.