Page 39 - Holyland Magazine - 2022 Edition

rom a distance, Nain doesn’t seem the entrance to the Jezreel Valley, Nain was
that much different from the biblical included in the list of cities mentioned by
village Jesus knew, at least the way we Pharaoh Thutmoses III, who invaded Canaan
imagine it to have looked. It’s tiny, as we in the 15th century BCE to restore Egyptian
Fenvision those villages to have been; it is control over it. The battle for Megiddo is the
picturesquely nestled in the mountains – in this best-known chapter in that story, but scholars
case, on the northern slope of Mount Moreh, believe Thutmoses fought a major battle on
where Gideon arrayed his soldiers for battle the doorstep of Nain, due to its location on the
against the Midianites (Judges 7:1). Most main road through the valley. That made it a
travelers whiz past it, perhaps hearing a word prime battleground in other periods as well.
or two about the fact that the village has not Nain now has a population of approximately
changed its name since Jesus’ time – and is 2,000 Israeli Arabs of the Muslim faith.
still called by its ancient name, Nain.
Archaeologists discovered a large building
made of dressed stone from the early Roman
But if you have not taken the turnoff to Nain period, built over another building from the The interior of the Nain church. Photo: Miriam
from Highway 65, just past the Town Hall, Hellenistic period, going back 2,300 years. The Feinberg Vamosh.
you’ve really missed an experience. Without thick layer of soot unearthed by the excavators
benefit of impressive ruins or magnificent revealed that the structure had been destroyed
present-day monuments, a visit to Nain – by fire in the first century CE, when the roof
mentioned once in the Gospel of Luke as collapsed, burying the inhabitants. By Second When you visit Nain, you’ll head down the main
the place where Jesus raised a widow’s son Temple times, Nain was probably among the street and over to the two-story stone church,
from the dead – manages to underscore the 240 cities and villages Josephus says were in with its beautiful view of nearby Mount Tabor.
message of Scripture and of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee. According to Luke’s description, Nain Built by the Franciscans in the 1880s high on
a very special way. had a town gate, meaning it was surrounded by the slope of the village, the church stands right
a wall. Archaeologists say an earthquake could across the street from the mosque, as is often
Nain, whose name may come from the have been responsible for the destruction of the case in Arab villages. Zuheira Barakat,
Hebrew word na’im, meaning pleasant, has the complex they discovered or that Roman a small woman with a gentle smile, whose
a colorful history going back some 5,000 soldiers may have set fire to it during their relatives have been caretakers of the church
years. Along with the much more famous efforts to quell the Great Revolt of the Jews for generations, will hand you the large old iron
Megiddo (Armageddon), a city that guarded against the Romans in 70 CE. key that opens the door.

Nain, nestled in the hills of Galilee.
Photo: Hanan Isachar

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