XII. THE CITY CALLED NAIN

Luke 7:1.—“Now when he had ended all his sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum.”

11.—“And it came to pass the day after, that he went into a city called Nain; and many of his disciples went with him, and much people.”

Jesus comes to Capernaum—He goes on to Nain—fame precedes Him as He approaches Judća—He arrives in the neighbourhood of the Baptist—He travels still further south to the vicinity of the Holy City, near which the Magdalen dwelt—St. Luke, therefore, it will be perceived, is here describing a journey of Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem.

Now let us hear Josephus (Antiq. xx. 5. § 1): “A quarrel sprung up between the Samaritans and the Jews, and this was the cause of it. The Galilćans, when they resorted to the Holy City at the feasts, had to pass through the country of the Samaritans. Now it happened that certain inhabitants of a place on the road, Nain by name, situated on the borders of Samaria and the Great Plain, rose upon them and slew many.” [Hudson reads kwmgV GinaiaV legomenhV, instead of NaiV, the common reading; but see Hug’s Introduction to the New Testament, Vol. i. p. 23 (translation), where the coincidence is suggested, and the reasons given for abiding by the ordinary text.]

Jesus, therefore, in this his journey southwards, (a journey, be it observed, which the Evangelist does not formally lay down, but the general direction of which we gather from an incident or two occurring in the course of it, and from the point to which it tended,)—Jesus, in this his journey, is found to come to a city which, it appears, did actually lie in the way of those who travelled from Galilee to Jerusalem. This is as it should be. A part of the story is certainly matter of fact. There is every reason to believe the Evangelist when he says that Jesus “went into a city called Nain.” What reason is there to disbelieve him when he goes on to say, that he met a dead man at the gate; that he touched the bier; bade the young man arise; and that the dead sat up and spake?