Nain #71

Nain is a small town in Lower Galilee, named in only one passage of the Bible, Luke 7:11-17. It was the scene of a moving miracle in which Jesus, moved by pity for a grieving widow, raised her only son from death as the funeral procession was heading out of the town gate. The story appears only in Luke’s Gospel, and it is one of three accounts in the Gospels where Jesus restores a dead person to life.

Biblical Significance

Luke says that “the day after” Jesus went to a town called Nain, accompanied by his disciples and a large crowd (Luke 7:11). Just before, he had healed the servant of a centurion at Capernaum (Luke 7:1-10). As Jesus approached the town gate, a dead man was being carried out, “the only son of his mother, and she was a widow” (Luke 7:12). In a world without social safety nets, the death of an only son would have left a widow in very difficult circumstances, so the loss was both emotional and economic.

The account emphasizes Jesus’ compassion. “When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, ‘Weep not’” (Luke 7:13). He touched the bier, the open frame that carried the body, and said, “Young man, I say unto thee, Arise” (Luke 7:14). The young man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother (Luke 7:15). The crowd was gripped by fear and glorified God, saying, “A great prophet is risen up among us” and “That God hath visited his people” (Luke 7:16).

The reaction is not accidental, because the story deliberately echoes two Old Testament miracles. The prophet Elijah raised the son of a widow at Zarephath (1 Kings 17:17-24), and the prophet Elisha raised the son of a woman at Shunem (2 Kings 4:32-37), a village on the opposite slope of the same hill, only a few miles from Nain. Luke wants his readers to see that Jesus not only stands in the line of those prophets but goes beyond them by raising the dead with a simple word. The news of the miracle spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country, and it reached John the Baptist, who sent disciples to ask whether Jesus was the coming one (Luke 7:17-19).

Today

Nain is identified with the village of Nein, on the northern slope of the hill known as Little Hermon, or the hill of Moreh, overlooking the Jezreel Valley, about six miles southeast of Nazareth and near Mount Tabor. The site appears to keep the ancient name, and a Franciscan church built in the 1880s marks the traditional place of the miracle. The remains of ancient tombs on the hillside are a reminder that the funeral procession would have left through a gate and headed to burial grounds outside the town.

The name is often explained as related to a Hebrew word meaning “pleasant,” though that is an interpretation rather than something the text says. The small village today has a modest population but remains a stop for pilgrims following Jesus’ ministry in Galilee.