The raising of the son of the widow of Nain (or Naim) is an account of a miracle by

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...

, recorded in the

Gospel of Luke The Gospel of Luke), or simply Luke (which is also its most common form of abbreviation). tells of the origins, birth, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. Together with the Acts of the Apostles, it makes up a two-vol ...

chapter 7. Jesus arrived at the village of Nain during the burial ceremony of the son of a widow, and raised the young man from the dead. () The location is the village of Nain, two miles south of

Mount Tabor Mount Tabor ( he, הר תבור) (Har Tavor) is located in Lower Galilee, Israel, at the eastern end of the Jezreel Valley, west of the Sea of Galilee. In the Hebrew Bible (Joshua, Judges), Mount Tabor is the site of the Battle of Mount Tabo ...

. This is the first of three

miracles of Jesus The miracles of Jesus are miraculous deeds attributed to Jesus in Christian and Islamic texts. The majority are faith healings, exorcisms, resurrections, and control over nature. In the Synoptic Gospels (Mark, Matthew, and Luke), Jesus refus ...

in the

canonical gospels Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...

in which he raises the dead, the other two being the

raising of Jairus' daughter The raising of Jairus' daughter is a reported miracle of Jesus that occurs in the synoptic Gospels, where it is interwoven with the account of the healing of a bleeding woman. The narratives can be found in Mark 5:21–43, Matthew 9:18–26 ...

and of Lazarus.

Biblical account

The miracle is described thus in Luke 7:

Interpretation

The raising of the son of the widow of Zarephath, by the Old Testament prophet

Elijah Elijah ( ; he, אֵלִיָּהוּ, ʾĒlīyyāhū, meaning "My El (deity), God is Yahweh/YHWH"; Greek form: Elias, ''Elías''; syr, ܐܸܠܝܼܵܐ, ''Elyāe''; Arabic language, Arabic: إلياس or إليا, ''Ilyās'' or ''Ilyā''. ) w ...

(

1 Kings 17 1 Kings 17 is the seventeenth chapter of the Books of Kings in the Hebrew Bible or the First Book of Kings in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is a compilation of various annals recording the acts of the kings of Israel and J ...

), is seen by

Fred Craddock Fred Brenning Craddock, Jr. (April 30, 1928 – March 6, 2015) was Bandy Distinguished Professor of Preaching and New Testament Emeritus in the Candler School of Theology at Emory University. He was an ordained minister of the Christian Church (Di ...

as the model for this miracle, as there are several parallels in the details, especially some verbal parallels. The

raising of the son of the woman of Shunem The raising of the son of the woman of Shunem is a miracle by Elisha narrated in the Hebrew Bible, 2 Kings 4 2 Kings 4 is the fourth chapter of the second part of the Books of Kings in the Hebrew Bible or the Second Book of Kings in the Old ...

( 2 Kings 4) by Elisha is also similar, including the reaction of the people. In particular, the location of Nain is very close to

Shunem Shunaam ( he, שׁוּנֵם; in LXX grc, Σουνὰν) was a small village mentioned in the Bible in the possession of the Tribe of Issachar. It was located near the Jezreel Valley, north of Mount Gilboa (). Shunaam is where the Philistines c ...

, identified with modern

Sulam Sulam ( ar, سولم; he, סוּלַם) is an Arab citizens of Israel, Arab village in north-eastern Israel. Known in ancient times as ''Shunama'' and ''Shunem'', it is first mentioned in the Amarna Letters in the 14th century BCE. Archaeologica ...

. Sinclair Ferguson calls attention to this as an example of a repeated pattern in the history of redemption. He concludes that the pattern repetition

"comes to its fullness in the person of Jesus Christ, the great prophet who heals not merely through delegated authority from God, but on his own authority, without rituals or prayers, but with a simple word of power. Here is the great God and Saviour of Israel in the flesh"...Ferguson, page 13.

The woman in the story had lost both her husband and her only son, so that there was no one left to support her. As she could not have inherited the land, the loss of her only son would have left her dependent on the charity of more distant relatives and neighbours.Sizer, Peter. "The Widow of Nain", Orthodox Research Institute, November, 1999
/ref> Both this account and the preceding one of the healing of the Centurion's servant () serve as a precursor to Jesus' assurance to the imprisoned John the Baptist that He is truly, 'the one who is to come' (), since, 'the dead are raised.' ().

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nain Miracles of Jesus Resurrection Gospel of Luke Women in the New Testament Widowhood

Biblical account

Interpretation

See also

Further reading

References