An apocryphal work under his name – the Gospel of Nicodemus – was produced in the mid-4th century, and is mostly a reworking of the earlier Acts of Pilate, which recounts the Harrowing of Hell.

"In Chapter 7, Nicodemus advises his colleagues among "the chief priests and the Pharisees", to hear and investigate before making a judgment concerning Jesus, reminding them that Jewish law requires that a person must be heard before they can be condemned.

[3] Finally, when Jesus is buried, Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes—about 100 Roman pounds (33 kilograms, or 73 lb).

[g] Nicodemus must have been a man of means; in his book Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week, Pope Benedict XVI observes that, "The quantity of the balm is extraordinary and exceeds all normal proportions.

This event is commemorated on that date in the Eastern churches,[13] while the Catholic General Roman Calendar marks the anniversary of the translation of Nicodemus' remains, rather than their discovery, which by the same tradition occurred the following day, 3 August.

[3][15] This does not preclude local preferences and traditions from being applied, as dioceses, national churches and religious institutes may have their own days of observance approved.

[16] For example, at the St. Nicodemus and St. Joseph of Arimathea Church, which the Franciscan Order established in Ramla in the 19th century, permission from the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem was obtained to celebrate the feast day of the two saints on the Saturday of the third week of Easter, so that the link between their role in the burial of Jesus and Easter solemnities would be highlighted in the Holy Land.

In 1941, The Golden Gate Quartet, sang the Gospel "God Told Nicodemus", in the African-American Jubilee style.

There developed the use of "Nicodemite", usually a term of disparagement, referring to a person who is suspected of public misrepresentation of their actual religious beliefs.

Calvin used the word in his 1544 Excuse à messieurs les Nicodemites referring to religious dissemblers in France—outwardly, conforming Catholics; inwardly, adherents of Protestantism.

[33] While the epithet initially applied to crypto-protestants, it later came to be used broadly for anyone suspected of exhibiting a false appearance of their religious adherence and concealing their genuine beliefs.

[35][36] In the case of the song, Nicodemus is an enslaved African, long deceased, but acknowledged in the lyrics as both prophet and herald of freedom.

The lyrics say, in part:[37] First verse: Nicodemus, the slave, was of African birth, And was bought for a bagful of gold; [...] But he died years ago, very old. [...]

Now run and tell Elijah to hurry up, Pomp And meet up at the gum tree down in the swamp, To wake Nicodemus today.

Scholar of placenames, researcher Rosamund Rodman, noted in a 2008 article that enslaved people who learnt to read generally did so in secret and at night, due to risks of punishment for this forbidden activity.

[35] Religious affairs journalist Daniel Burke notes that, "To blacks after the Civil War, he was a model of rebirth as they sought to cast off their old identity as slaves".

[7] On 16 August 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. invoked Nicodemus as a metaphor concerning the need for the United States to be "born again" in order to effectively address social and economic inequality.