Luke 7:11

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.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(11) He went into a city called Nain.—The narrative that follows is peculiar to St. Luke. The name of the city has survived, with hardly any alteration, in the modern Nein. It lies on the north-western edge of the “Little Hermon” (the Jebel-ed-Dâhy) as the ground falls into the plain of Esdraelon. It is approached by a steep ascent, and on either side of the road the rock is full of sepulchral caves. It was on the way to one of these that the funeral procession was met by our Lord. We may reasonably infer that the miracle that followed was one which, from its circumstances, had specially fixed itself in the memories of the “devout women” of Luke 8:1, and that it was from them that St. Luke obtained his knowledge of it. (See Introduction.)

Benson Commentary

Luke 7:11-12. He went into a city called Nain — A town situated about a mile or two south of Tabor, and near Endor. And many of his disciples went with him — Among these, doubtless, were the twelve appointed to be apostles: for, “it is not to be imagined that he would suffer the chosen witnesses of his miracles to be absent, when so great a miracle was to be performed as the raising a person from the dead, and to be performed so publicly, in the presence of all those who were attending the funeral.”

There was a dead man carried out — “When Jesus and the multitude that attended him came to the gates of Nain, they met the corpse of a youth, whom much people of the city were carrying out to burial, accompanied by his afflicted mother bathed in tears. This woman, being a widow, had no prospect of any more children, wherefore, as he was her only son, the loss she sustained in him was very great. Hence the sympathy which she received from her relations and friends was singular. In testimony of their concern for her, a crowd of people, much greater than was usual on such occasions, attended her while she performed the last duty to her beloved son. This circumstance the evangelist takes notice of to show, that though there had been no persons present at the miracle but those who attended the funeral, it was illustrious on account of the number of the witnesses.” — Macknight.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

7:11-18 When the Lord saw the poor widow following her son to the grave, he had compassion on her. See Christ's power over death itself. The gospel call to all people, to young people particularly, is, Arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light and life. When Christ put life into him, it appeared by the youth's sitting up. Have we grace from Christ? Let us show it. He began to speak: whenever Christ gives us spiritual life, he opens the lips in prayer and praise. When dead souls are raised to spiritual life, by Divine power going with the gospel, we must glorify God, and look upon it as a gracious visit to his people. Let us seek for such an interest in our compassionate Saviour, that we may look forward with joy to the time when the Redeemer's voice shall call forth all that are in their graves. May we be called to the resurrection of life, not to that of damnation.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

A city called Nain - This city was in Galilee, in the boundaries of the tribe of Issachar. It was about two miles south of Mount Tabor, and not far from Capernaum; It is now a small village inhabited by Jews, Muslims, and Christians. Dr. Thomson ("The Land and the Book," vol. ii. p. 158) locates it on the northwest corner of a mount now called Jebel ed Duhy, one hour's ride from the foot of Mount Tabor. Of this place he says: "This mount is now called Jebel ed Duhy and that small hamlet on the northwest corner of it is Nain, famous for the restoration of the widow's son to life. It was once a place of considerable extent, but is now little more than a cluster of ruins, among which dwell a few families of fanatical Moslems. It is in keeping with the one historic incident that renders it dear to the Christian, that its only antiquities are tombs. These are situated mainly on the east of the village, and it was in that direction, I presume, that the widow's son was being carried on that memorable occasion. It took me just an hour to ride from the foot of Tabor to Nain."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

Lu 7:11-17. Widow of Nain's Son Raised to Life. (In Luke only).

11. Nain—a small village not elsewhere mentioned in Scripture, and only this once probably visited by our Lord; it lay a little to the south of Mount Tabor, about twelve miles from Capernaum.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Ver. 11-15. Luke alone gives us an account of this miracle of our Saviour’s. Matthew mentions only the raising from the dead of Jairus’s daughter. Luke adds this. John adds that of Lazarus, John 11:57, by which our Lord did mightily show his Divine power, and gave us some firstfruits of the more general resurrection, as well as declared himself to be, as he elsewhere saith, the resurrection and the life. The place where this miracle was done was called Nain. H. Stephen Heb., Chald., Gr. et Lat. nomina, & c., tells us, it was a city or town about two miles from Mount Tabor, at the foot of the lesser Mount Hermon, near to Hendor. It was the custom of the Jews to bury their dead without their cities. Christ met this dead body carrying out. He was it seems her only child, and she was a widow, so under a great affliction, God by this providence having quenched the only coal she had left in Israel.

And when the Lord saw her, (the text saith), he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not. None moved him on the behalf of the widow, neither do we read that she herself spake to him; only our Saviour’s bowels were moved at the sight of her sorrow, and consideration of her loss. It is observable that our Saviour wrought his healing miracles:

1. Sometimes at the motion and desire of the parties to be healed.

2. Sometimes at the desires of others on their behalf.

3. Sometimes of his own free motion, neither themselves nor others soliciting him for any such act of mercy toward them;

and that in the three first miracles, (of which Matthew and Luke give us an account here and Matthew 8:1-34), which he wrought after his famous sermon on the mount, he gave us an instance of all these, in his healing of the leper personally beseeching him, of the centurion’s servant at the entreaty of the elders of the Jews, and of the widow’s son here, upon his sight of the woman’s affliction, none soliciting him. Thereby showing us that we ought not to stay our hand from doing good when we have proper objects and opportunities before us, until we be importuned and solicited there unto. Christ saying to her,

Weep not, forbade not the natural expression of her passion, but signified a sudden and not expected resurrection, so as she should not weep without hope. This said, he cometh and toucheth the bier, or the coffin, and saith not, Young man, in the name of God, I say unto thee, Arise; but,

Young man, I say unto thee, Arise; thereby declaring to them (would they have understood it) that he was the Son of God, and while he was on earth had a power in and from himself by the word of his mouth to command the dead to arise. His word was effective, and to evidence it, it is said, that

he that was dead sat up, so as all might take notice of the miracle,

and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother; to let him know his duty to be subject to her, and the jurisdiction she had over him.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And it came to pass the day after,.... The Vulgate Latin reads "afterward", not expressing any day, as in Luke 8:1, but the Syriac, Arabic, Persic, and Ethiopic versions, read to the same sense as we, the day after, the next day, on the morrow, after he had cured the centurion's servant in Capernaum, where he staid all night:

that he went into a city called Naim; which Jerom (p) places near Mount Tabor, and the river Kison. The (q) Jews speak of a Naim in, the tribe of Issachar, so called from its pleasantness, and which seems to be the same place with this. The Persic version reads it, "Nabetis", or "Neapolis", the same With Sychem in Samaria, but without reason:

and many of his disciples went with him; not only the twelve, but many others:

and much people; from Capernaum, and other parts, that followed him to see his miracles, or for one end or another, though, they did not believe in him; at least these were only hearers, and had, not entered themselves among the disciples,

(p) Tom. 1. ad Marcellum, fol. 44. B. & Epitaph. Paulae. fol. 60. A. (q) Bereshit Rabba, sect. 98. fol. 86. 1.

Geneva Study Bible

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

(2) Christ openly affirms his power over death.

(a) Nain is the name of a town in Galilee which was situated on the other side of the Kishon, which runs into the sea of Galilee.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Luke 7:11-12. The raising of the young man at Nain (נָאִין, a pasture ground, situated in a south-easterly direction from Nazareth, now a little hamlet of the same name not far from Endor; see Robinson, Pal. III. p. 469; Ritter, Erdk. XV. p. 407) is recorded in Luke alone; it is uncertain whether he derived the narrative from a written source or from oral tradition.

ἐν τῷ ἑξῆς] in the time that followed thereafter, to be construed with ἐγέν. Comp. Luke 8:1.

μαθηταί] in the wider sense, Luke 6:13, Luke 17:20.

ἱκανοί] in considerable number, Mehlhorn, De adjectivor. pro adverb, pos. ratione et usu, Glog. 1828, p. 9 ff.; Kühner, ad Xen. Anab. i. 4. 12.

ὡς δὲ ἤγγισε … καὶ ἰδού] This καί introducing the apodosis is a particle denoting something additional: also. Comp. Luke 2:21. When He drew near, behold, there also was, etc. See, moreover, Acts 1:11; Acts 10:17.

τῇ μητρὶ αὐτοῦ] Comp. Luke 9:38; Herod. vii. 221: τὸν δὲ παῖδα … ἐόντα οἱ μουνογενέα; Aeschyl. Ag. 872: μονογενὲς τέκνον πατρί; Tob 3:15; Jdg 11:34; Winer, p. 189 [E. T. 264 f.].

The tombs (ἐξεκομίζετο, comp. Acts 5:6) were outside the towns. See Doughty, Anal. II. p. 50 ff.

καὶ αὕτη χήρα] scil. ἦν, which, moreover, is actually read after αὕτη by important authorities. It should be written in its simplest form, αὕτη (Vulg. and most of the codd. of It. have: haec). Beza: κ. αὐτῇ χήρᾳ (et ipsi quidem viduae).

Expositor's Greek Testament

Luke 7:11-17. The son of the widow of Nain. In Lk. only.—ἐν τῷ ἑξῆς (καιρῷ), in the following time, thereafter; vague.—ἐν τῇ ἑ. would mean: on the following day (ἡμέρᾳ, understood), i.e., the day after the healing of the centurion’s servant in Capernaum. Hofmann defends this reading on the negative ground that no usage of style on the part of Lk. is against it, and that it better suits the circumstances. “We see Jesus on the way towards the city of Nain on the north-western slope of the little Hermon, a day’s journey from Capernaum. It is expressly noted that His disciples, and, as ἱκανοί is well attested, in consider bable numers, not merely the Twelve, were with Him, and many people besides; a surrounding the same as on the hill where He had addressed His disciples. Those of the audience who had come from Judaea are on their way home.” The point must be left doubtful. W. and H[74] have ἐν τῷ ἑ., and omit ἱκανοί.—Ναίν: there is still a little hamlet of the same name (vide Robinson, Palestine, ii. 355, 361). Eusebius and Jerome speak of the town as not far from Endor. Some have thought the reference is to a Nain in Southern Palestine, mentioned by Josephus. But Lk. would hardly take his readers so far from the usual scene of Christ’s ministry without warning.

[74] Westcott and Hort.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

11-17. The raising of the Son of the Widow of Nain.

11. the day after] If the reading τῇ be right we must understand ἡμέρᾳ, ‘day.’ Some MSS. (ABL, &c.) read τῷ, which would give a wider limit of time. In Luke 8:1 we have ἐν τῷ καθεξῆς, and it must be admitted that if ἐν τῇ ἑξῆς be the right reading it is unique. For in Luke 9:37, ἡμέρᾳ is supplied; and in Acts 21:1; Acts 25:17; Acts 27:18, ἐν is omitted. There is no chronological difficulty about the event taking place the ‘next day,’ as I have shewn in my Life of Christ, I. 285. St Luke alone, with his characteristic tenderness, preserves for us this narrative.

into a city called Nain] In the tribe of Issachar. The name means ‘lovely,’and it deserves the name from its site on the north-west slope of Jebel el Duhy, or Little Hermon, not far from Endor, and full in view of Tabor and the hills of Zebulon. It is twenty-five miles from Capernaum, and our Lord, starting in the cool of the very early morning, as Orientals always do, would reach it before noon. It is now a squalid and wretched village still bearing the name of Nein.

many of his disciples went with, him, and much people] More literally, ‘there were accompanying Him His disciples, in considerable numbers, and a large multitude.’ In this first year of His ministry, before the deadly opposition to Him had gathered head, while as yet the Pharisees and leaders had not come to an open rupture with Him, and He had not sifted His followers by ‘hard sayings,’ our Lord was usually accompanied by adoring crowds.

Bengel's Gnomen

Luke 7:11. Ἐν τῷ ἑξῆς) So ἐν τῷ καθεξῆς, ch. Luke 8:1. Ancient translators generally understand this expression of a day following, I know not whether precisely, the next day. The Vulgate has deinceps; but the genuine text of the Vulg. has, according to Mill, alia die. Mill cites no authority: and yet it is not of much consequence; for the sense even thus may be indefinite. Altera die [the second or next day], sequenti die,[70] which the Vulgate elsewhere is wont to use, would be different.[71] The series of events in this place requires a less definite time; for the raising of the young man of Nain is connected more closely with the subsequent message [deputation] sent by John, than with the preceding healing of the centurion’s servant, as we have shown in the Harmony of the Gospels, § 62. [The daughter of Jairus was first raised to life before the young man of Nain: and on that account the faith of Jairus is the more praiseworthy, because it had no precedent to look to of a dead man raised to life by Jesus. The Lord secretly raised the daughter of Jairus, and ordered that act of raising the dead to be even kept secret; but then next He raised up both the young man of Nain and Lazarus publicly. Nain was one of those cities of which mention is made in Matthew 11:1, nay, indeed previously in Matthew 9:35. For since the disciples went to the city of Nain in a body [whereas when sent forth they went “by two and two,” Mark 6:7], there is hardly reason to doubt that the raising up of the young man took place before the sending forth of the Twelve Apostles, who were confirmed in the faith by this very miracle.—Harm., p. 296.]—Ναῒν, Nain) The specification of the name of the town, as also the double multitude [the “much people” following the Lord, and also the “much people” following the funeral of the young man, Luke 7:11-12] of spectators, confirms the certainty of the miracle.

[70] Not die sequenti: the latter may be a day following: the former is necessarily the following day.—ED. and TRANSL.

[71] ab and the oldest MSS. of Vulg. have deinceps. c has sequenti die.—ED. and TRANSL.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 11-17. - The Master raises from the dead the only son of the widow of Nain. Verse 11. - And it came to pass the day after. The Greek expression here, in the majority of the more ancient authorities, is vague as a note of time. The Revised Version renders it "soon afterwards." The incident that follows the raising from the dead of the widow's son is only mentioned by St. Luke. It is generally assumed that our Lord only raised three persons from the dead - this young man of Nain. the little daughter of Jairus the ruler, and Lazarus of Bethany. But such an assumption is purely arbitrary. We have before called attention to the vast number of miracles worked by Jesus during the two years and a half of the public ministry not reported by the evangelists at all, or only glanced at in passing. There were, most probably, among these unreported miracles several instances of men, women, and children raised from the dead. St. Augustine, in one of his sermons (98.), specially calls attention to this in his words, "of the numerous persons raised to life by Christ, three only are mentioned as specimens in the Gospels." Each evangelist specially chooses one of the various examples, no doubt known to him - that peculiar instance or instances best suited to the especial teaching of his Gospel. St. John alone recounts the raising of Lazarus. St. Luke is the solitary reporter of the miracle performed on the dead son of the widow of Nain. We may reasonably infer, says Dean Plumptre, that this miracle, from its circumstances, had specially fixed itself in the memories of the "devout women" of Luke 8:1, and that it was from them that St. Luke obtained his accurate and detailed knowledge of this, as well as of many other of the incidents which he alone relates in his Gospel. He went into a city called Nain. From the Hebrew נעים, naim fair, probably so called from its striking situation on a steep hill. It is on the slope of Little Hermon, near Endor, some twenty or more miles from Capernaum. The name Nein is still given to a small poor village on the same site. It is approached by a narrow, steep ascent, and on either side of the road are sepulchral caves. It was in one of these that the dead man was about to have been laid when the Master met the little mourning procession winding down the steep road as he and his crowd of followers were toiling up the ascent nearing the gate of the city. Luke 7:11

Vincent's Word Studies

The day after (ἐν τῇ ἑξῆς)

Others read ἐν τῷ ἑξῆς, soon after. So Rev. Luke's usage favors the latter.

Nain

Mentioned nowhere else in the Bible. "On the northern slope of the rugged and barren ridge of Little Hermon, immediately west of Endor, which lies in a further recess of the same range, is the ruined village of Nain. No convent, no tradition marks the spot. But, under these circumstances, the name alone is sufficient to guarantee its authenticity. One entrance alone it could have had - that which opens on the rough hillside in its downward slope to the plain. It must have been in this steep descent, as, according to Eastern custom, they 'carried out the dead man,' that, 'nigh to the gate' of the village, the bier was stopped, and the long procession of mourners stayed, and ' the young man delivered back to his mother (Stanley, "Sinai and Palestine"). "It is in striking accord with the one biblical incident in the history of Nain that renders it dear to the Christian heart, that about the only remains of antiquity are tombs. These are cut in the rock, and are situated on the hillside to the east of the village" (Thomson, "Land and Book").