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Bible Dictionaries
Nain
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or NAIN. The town where Jesus raised the widow’s son to life ( Luke 7:11 ). The name is found in the modern Nein , a small, squalid village, 6 miles S.E. of Nazareth, on the N. slope of the Hill of Moreh, the so-called ‘Little Hermon.’ The summit of the hill is 1690 feet high, with a white-domed sanctuary, the tomb of the saint from whom the mountain takes its modern name, Jebel ed-Duhy . The village is 744 feet above the sea. Sir W. M. Ramsay thinks ‘there can be little doubt that the ancient city was on the top’ of the hill ( The Education of Christ , Preface, ix), but the evidence is not stated. The present village is insignificant. Ruins stretch to the north, showing that the place was once of some importance; but they are comparatively modern. The rock-cut tombs to the East, however, bespeak a much higher antiquity. The small sanctuary, Maqâm Sîdna ‘Isa , ‘Place of our Lord Jesus,’ on the north, doubtless commemorates the visit of the Saviour. There is no trace of city walls. Tristram was misled by the shape of the ruins ( Land of Israel , 125). ‘The Gate’ was probably the usual entrance from that direction. The site commands an interesting view. Across a narrow bay of Esdraelon rises Mt. Tabor, over the eastern shoulder of which the white summit of Hermon is visible; while to the N.W. and W. the eye ranges over the hills of Lower Galilee, and the rolling breadths of the great plain, to Mt. Carmel by the sea.
W. Ewing.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Nain'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/n/nain.html. 1909.
