THE ASCENT: FROM THE RIVER JORDAN TO THE MOUNT OF TRANSFIGURATION. THE RAISING OF THE YOUNG MAN OF NAIN, THE MEETING OF LIFE AND DEATH. CHAPTER XX.
(St. Lukevii. 11-17.)
That early spring-tide in Galilee was surely the truest realisation of the picture in the Song of Solomon, when earth clad herself in garments of beauty, and the air was melodious with songs of new life, [a Cant. ii. 11-13.] It seemed as if each day marked a widening circle of deepest sympathy and largest power on the part of Jesus; as if each day also brought fresh surprise, new gladness; opened hitherto unthought-of possibilities, and pointed Israel far beyond the horizon of their narrow expectancy. Yesterday it was the sorrow of the heathen Centurion which woke an echo in the heart of the Supreme Commander of life and death; faith called out, owned, and placed on the high platform of Israel's worthies. To-day it is the same sorrow of a Jewish mother, which touches the heart of the Son of Mary, and appeals to where denial is unthinkable. In that Presence grief and death cannot continue. As the defilement of a heathen house could not attach to Him, Whose contact changed the Gentile stranger into a true Israelite, so could the touch of death not
render unclean Him, Whose Presence vanquished and changed it into life. Jesus could not enter Nain, and its people pass Him to carry one dead to the burying.
For our present purpose it matters little, whether it was the very 'day after the healing of the Centurion's servant, or 'shortly afterwards,' [1 This depends on whether we adopt the reading.] that Jesus left Capernaum for Nain. Probably it was the morrow of that miracle, and the fact that 'much people,' or rather 'a great multitude,' followed Him, seems confirmatory of it. The way was long, as we rekon, more than twenty-five miles; but, even if it was all taken on foot, there could be no difficulty in reaching Nain ere the evening, when so often funerals took place. Various roads lead to, and from Nain; [1 I cannot understand what Dean Stanley means, when he says (Sinai and Palest, p. 352): 'One entrance alone it could have had.' I have counted not fewer than six roads leading to Nain.] that which stretches to the Lake of Galilee and up to Capernaum is quite distinctly marked. It is difficult to understand, how most of those who have visited the spot could imagine the place, where Christ met the funeral procession, to have been the rock-hewn tombs to the west of Nain and towards Nazareth. [2 So Dean Stanley, and even Captain Conder. Canon Farrar regards this as one of'the certain sites.' But, even according to his own description of the route taken from Capernaum, it is difficult to understand how Jesus could have issued upon the rock-hewn tombs.] For, from Capernaum the Lord would not have come that way, but approach it from the north- east by Endor. Hence there can be little doubt, that Canon Tristram correctly identifies the now unfenced burying- ground, about ten minutes' walk to the east of Nain, as that whither, on that spring afternoon, they were carrying the widow's son. [3 'Land of Israel,' pp. 129, 130.] On the path leading to it the Lord of Life for the first time burst open the gates of death.
It is all desolate now. A few houses of mud and stone with low doorways, scattered among heaps of stones and traces of walls, is all that remains of what even these ruins show to have been once a city, with walls and gates. [4 Captain conder (Tent-Work in Pal. i. pp. 121, 122) has failed to discover traces of a wall. But see the description of Canon Tristram (Land of Isr. p. 129) which I have followed in my account.] The rich gardens are no more, the fruit trees cut down, 'and there is a painful sense of desolation' about the place, as if the breath of judgment had swept over it. And yet even so we can understand its ancient name of Nain, 'the pleasant,' [5 I cannot accept the rendering of Nain by 'pascuum.'] which the Rabbis regarded as fulfilling that part of the promise to Issachar: 'he saw the land that it was pleasant.' [6 Ber. R. 98, ed. Warsh. p. 175 b:] From the elevation on which the city stood we look northwards, across the wide plain, to wooded Tabor, and in the far distance to snow-capped Hermon. On the left (in the west) rise the hills beyond which Nazareth lies embosomed; to the right is Endor; southwards Shunem, and beyond it the Plain of Jezreel. By this path, from Endor, comes Jesus with His disciples and the great following multitude. Here, near by the city gate, on the road that leads eastwards to the old burying- ground, has this procession of the 'great multitude,' which accompanied the Prince of Life, met that other 'great multitude' that followed the dead to his burying. Which of the two shall give way to the other? We know what ancient Jewish usage would have demanded. For, of all the duties enjoined, none more strictly enforced by every consideration of humanity and piety, even by the example of God Himself, than that of comforting the mourners and showing respect to the dead by accompanying him to the burying, [a Ber. 18 a.] [1 For the sake of brevity I must here refer to 'Sketches of Jewish Social Life,' ch. x., and to the article in 'The Bible Educator,' vol. iv. pp. 330-333.] The popular idea, that the spirit of the dead hovered about the unburied remains, must have given intensity to such feelings.
Putting aside later superstitions, so little has changed in the Jewish rites and observances about the dead, [2 Haneberg (Relig. Alterth. pp. 502, 503) gives the apt reasons for this.] that from Talmudic and even earlier sources, [3 The Tractate Ebhel Rabbathi ('Great Mourning') euphemistically called Masse kheth Semachoth, 'Tractate of Joys,' It is already quoted in the Talmud: comp Zunz, Gottesd. Vortr. p. 90, note d. It is inserted in vol. ix. of the Bab. Talmud, pp. 28 a to 31 b.] we can form a vivid conception of what had taken place in Nain. The watchful anxiety; the vain use of such means as were known, or within reach of the widow; the deepening care, the passionate longing of the mother to retain her one treasure, her sole earthly hope and stay; then the gradual fading out of the light, the farewell, the terrible burst of sorrow: all these would be common features in any such picture. But here we have, besides, the Jewish thoughts of death and after death; knowledge just sufficient to make afraid, but not to give firm consolation, which would make even the most pious Rabbi uncertain of his future; [b Ber. 28 b.] and then the desolate thoughts connected in the Jewish mind with childlessness. We can realise it all: how Jewish ingenuity and wisdom would resort to remedies real or magical; how the neighbours would come in with reverent step, feeling as if the very Shekhinah were unseen at the head of the pallet in that humble home; [c Nedar. 40 a, lines 6 and 7 from bottom.] how they would whisper sayings about submission, which, when realisation of God's love is wanting, seem only to stir the heart to rebellion against absolute power; and how they would resort to the prayers of those who were deemed pious in Nain. [d Ber. v. 5.]
But all was in vain. And now the well-known blast of the horn has carried tidings, that once more the Angel of Death has done his dire behest, [e Moed K. 27 b.] In passionate grief the mother has rent her uppergarment. [f Jer. Moed. K. 83 d.] The last sad offices have been rendered to the dead. The body has been laid on the ground; hair and nails have been cut, [g Moed K. 8 b.]and the body washed, anointed, and wrapped in the best the widow could procure; for, the ordinance which directed that the dead should be buried in 'wrappings' (Takhrikhin), or as they significantly called it, the 'provision for the journey' (Zevadatha), [h Rosh haSh 17 a and other wise.] of the most inexpensive, linen, is of later date than our period. It is impossible to say, whether the later practice already prevailed, of covering the body with metal, glass, or salt, and laying it either upon earth or salt, [a Shabb. 151b; Semach. I]
And now the mother was left Oneneth (moaning, lamenting), a term which distinguished the mourning before from that after burial. [1 The mourning up to the time of burial or during the first day was termed Aninah (widowed-mourning, moaning) Jer. Horay. 48 a. The following three, seven, or thirty days (as the case might be) were those of Ebhel, 'mourning.' Other forms of the same word need not be mentioned.] She would sit on the floor, neither eat meat, nor drink wine. What scanty meal she would take, must be without prayer, in the house of a neighbour, or in another room, or at least with her back to the dead, [b Jer. Ber. 5 d.] Pious friends would render neighbourly offices, or busy themselves about the near funeral. If it was deemed duty for the poorest Jew, on the death of his wife, to provide at least two flutes and one mourning woman, [c Kethub. iv. 4.] we may feel sure that the widowed mother had not neglected what, however incongruous or difficult to procure, might be regarded as the last tokens of affection. In all likelihood the custom obtained even then, though in modified form, to have funeral orations at the grave. For, even if charity provided for an unknown wayfarer the simplest funeral, mourning-women would be hired to chaunt in weird strains the lament: 'Alas, the lion! alas, the
hero!' or similar words, [d Mass. Semach. i. 9.] while great Rabbis were wont to bespeak for themselves a warm funeral oration' (Hesped, or Hespeda). [2 Of these a number of instances are given in the Talmud, though probably only of the prologue, or epilogue, or of the most striking thoughts.] For, from the funeral oration a man's fate in the other world might be inferred; [e Shabb. 153 a.] and, indeed, 'the honour of a sage was in his funeral oration.' [f Moed K. 25 a.] and in this sense the Talmud answers the question, whether a funeral oration is intended to honour the survivors or the dead, [g Sanh. 46 b.]
But in all this painful pageantry there was nothing for the heart of the widow, bereft of her only child. We can
