Gospel of Nicodemus

Record summary

The Gospel of Nicodemus, also called the Acts of Pilate, presents itself as an official-style account of Jesus’s trial and adds narratives about the descent into and liberation of the dead. Its Latin versions circulated widely in medieval Europe, influencing preaching, drama, visual art, and passion traditions. It matters for comparison as an example of an apocryphal dossier acquiring authority through liturgical and manuscript use. Attribution to Nicodemus is pseudepigraphic, the Greek and Latin sections have complex relationships, and the text should not be treated as an independent court record.