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Raising the widow's son at Nain

Luke 7:11–17 · Early ministry in Galilee

Scripture

Luke 7:11–17

nd 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. 12Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and much people of the city was with her. 13And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not. 14And he came and touched the bier: and they that bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. 15And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother. 16And there came a fear on all: and they glorified God, saying, That a great prophet is risen up among us; and, That God hath visited his people. 17And this rumour of him went forth throughout all Judaea, and throughout all the region round about.

King James Version · public domain

Lluka 7:11–17

dhe mbë të-nesërmet Jisuj vinte ndë një qytet që quhej Nain; edhe vininë bashkë me atë edhe mjaft nga nxënësit’ e ti, edhe shumë gjindje. 12Edhe kur uafërua në portët të qytetit, ja tek sillninë përjashta një të-vdekurë, të-cilinë e-ëma e kishte bir të-vetëmë, edhe ajo ishte e-ve; edhe shumë gjindje prej qytetit ishte bashkë me atë. 13Edhe Zoti kur pa atë, i erdhi keq për atë, edhe i tha asaj, Mos qaj. 14Edhe uafërua e zuri shtratinë; edhe ata që e mbaninë qëndruanë; edhe tha, Djalosh, po të them, ngreu. 15Edhe i-vdekuri ungrit e ndënji, edhe zuri të flasë. Edhe j’a dha s’ëmësë. 16Edhe të-gjithëve u hyri frikë, edhe lavduroninë Perëndinë, dyke thënë, Se profit i-math është ngriturë ndër ne, edhe se Perëndia vuri re llauzin’ e ti. 17Edhe dolli kjo fjalë për atë ndëpër gjithë Judhenë, edhe ndëpër gjithë vëndetë rrotullë.

Kristoforidhi, Dhiata e Re Toskërisht 1879 · zotërim publik

Summary

Here Christ acts unasked, moved by compassion for the widow who has lost her only son. No one petitions him; the meeting of the two crowds, the company of life and the procession of death, is the whole drama, and he intervenes because his mercy cannot be still. The Fathers note that he first says "Weep not," staying the tears before the bier, for he means to take away the cause of grief, not the grief alone.

St. Cyril of Alexandria draws out the touch. Christ could have raised the youth by a word, yet he lays his hand on the bier, that we might learn his flesh is life-giving. United to the Word who gives life to all, his body has become zoopoios, effectual for the salvation of man; as iron set in fire takes on the power of fire, so his flesh communicates the life of the Word and undoes death and corruption. For Cyril this is the Life and the Resurrection meeting a funeral, the Destroyer of death halting it, the raising a pledge of the general resurrection, the reversal of Adam who returned to dust.

St. Ambrose adds the figural reading the West loved: the widow is the Church, her only son the sinner mourned and carried toward the grave, whom Christ raises by touching the bier, his own body, and restores to her. This is the first of three raisings the Gospels record, each greater than the last: a youth on the way to burial, a girl just dead within the house, and Lazarus four days in the tomb. The tradition reads these as steps in healing the soul: the sinner roused at the first stirring of sin, then in settled habit, then in long custom, none beyond the reach of him who is Life.

In their own words

It was, my beloved, that thou mightest learn that the holy body of Christ is effectual for the salvation of man. For the flesh of the Almighty Word is the body of life, and was clothed with His might.

St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke, Sermon XXXVI (on Luke 7:11); Cyril, Commentary on Luke (R. Payne Smith, 1859)

The Raising of the Widow's Son at Nain (Luke 7:11–17)

Public-Domain Patristic Commentary

Luke alone records this, the first raising of the dead in the Gospels. At the gate of the town of Nain, Christ meets a funeral procession: the only son of a widow is being carried out for burial. Moved with compassion, He says to her, "Weep not," touches the bier, and commands, "Young man, I say unto thee, Arise." The dead man sits up and begins to speak, and Christ gives him back to his mother. The crowd is seized with awe and glorifies God, saying that "a great prophet is risen up among us." The texts below are quoted verbatim from public-domain English translations — the standalone commentaries of Cyril and Augustine, and the remaining Fathers as preserved in the Catena Aurea (St. Thomas Aquinas, trans. J. H. Newman, 1841). Nothing is paraphrased.

St. Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376–444)

Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Sermon 36 (on Luke 7:11–17) Source: trans. R. Payne Smith, 1859. Public domain. Full text: https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/cyril_on_luke_03_sermons_26_38.htm

On how, unlike at the centurion's house, here Christ comes uninvited:

But observe how He joins miracle to miracle: and in the former instance, the healing of the centurion's servant, He was present by invitation: but here He draws near without being invited. For no one summoned Him to restore the dead man to life, but He comes to do so of His own accord.

On the meeting of the funeral with the Life of all, and the raising itself:

But there meets him the Life and Resurrection, even Christ: for He is the Destroyer of death and of corruption: He it is "in Whom we live and move and are:" He it is Who has restored the nature of man to that which it originally was; and has set free our death-fraught flesh from the bonds of death. He had mercy upon the woman, and that her tears might be stopped, He commanded, saying, "Weep not." And immediately the cause of her weeping was done away: how, or by what method? He touched the bier, and by the utterance of his godlike word, made him who was lying thereon return again to life: for He said, "Young man, I say unto thee. Arise;" and immediately that which was commanded was done: the actual accomplishment attended upon the words, "And that dead man, it says, sat up, and began to speak, and He gave him to his mother."

On these raisings as a pledge of our own resurrection:

Those persons therefore who were restored to life by the power of Christ, we take as a pledge of the hope prepared for us of a resurrection of the dead: and these were, this young man, and Lazarus of Bethany, and the daughter of the chief of the synagogue.

On why Christ touched the bier instead of healing by a word alone:

And yet how was not a word enough for raising him who was lying there? For what is there difficult to it, or past accomplishment? What is more powerful than the Word of God? Why then did He not effect the miracle by a word only, but also touched the bier? It was, my beloved, that thou mightest learn that the holy body of Christ is effectual for the salvation of man. For the flesh of the Almighty Word is the body of life, and was clothed with His might.

Cyril goes on to compare this life-giving power to iron set in the fire: as iron brought into contact with fire takes on the working of fire, so the flesh of Christ has the power of giving life and undoes the dominion of death and corruption, because it is the flesh of the Word who gives life to all.

St. John Chrysostom (c. 349–407)

As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Luke. Public domain.

On the consolation that comes from the hope of resurrection:

But when He bids us cease from weeping Who consoles the sorrowful, He tells us to receive consolation from those who are now dead, hoping for their resurrection.

St. Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335–395)

As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Luke. Public domain.

On the proof of the resurrection drawn from Christ's works:

Now the proof of the resurrection we learn not so much from the words as from the works of our Savior, who, beginning His miracles with the less wonderful, reconciled our faith to far greater.

On the depth of the widowed mother's loss:

He has told us the sum of misery in a few words. The mother was a widow ... she had no one upon whom she might look in the place of him that was dead. To him alone she had given suck, he alone made her home cheerful. All that is sweet and precious to a mother, was he alone to her.

On the word "Young man":

When He said, Young man, He signified that he was in the flower of his age, just ripening into manhood, who but a little while before was the sight of his mothers eyes, just entering upon the time of marriage, the scion of her race, the branch of succession, the staff of her old age.

Titus of Bostra (d. c. 378)

As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Luke. Public domain.

On Him who raises not as the prophets did, but by His own word:

But the Savior is not like to Elias mourning over the son of the widow of Sarepta, nor as Elisha who laid his own body upon the body of the dead, nor as Peter who prayed for Tabitha, but is none other than He who calls those things which be not, as though they were, who can speak to the dead as to the living.

On the signs of a true resurrection:

But straightway he arose to whom the command was made. For the Divine power is irresistible; there is no delay, no urgency of prayer ... These are the signs of a true resurrection, for the lifeless body cannot speak, nor would the mother have carried back to her house her dead and lifeless son.

Theophylact of Ohrid (c. 1050–1107)

From his Explanation of the Gospel of Luke, as preserved in the Catena Aurea on Luke. Public domain.

On the spiritual sense of the widow and her son:

By the widow also you may understand a soul that has lost her husband in the divine word. Her son is the understanding, which is carried out beyond the city of the living. Its coffin is the body, which some indeed have called the tomb. But the Lord touching him raises him up, causing him to become young, and rising from sin he begins to speak and teach others.

Blessed Augustine of Hippo (354–430)

Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament, Sermon 48 (on Luke 7:11ff; "On the Three Dead Persons whom the Lord Raised") Source: trans. in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 6. Public domain. Full text: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/160348.htm

On the scene at the gate, and the compassion that moved Christ:

The Lord came near to the city; and behold there was a dead man being carried out already beyond the gate. Moved with compassion, for that the mother, a widow and bereaved of her only son, was weeping, He did what you have heard, saying, Young man, I say unto you, Arise. He that was dead arose, and began to speak, and He restored him to his mother.

On the three raisings as three kinds of sinners:

These three kinds of dead persons, are three kinds of sinners whom even at this day Christ does raise.

On what the young man of Nain, carried out beyond the gate, represents: the sinner whose sin has passed from the heart into the deed, but not yet hardened into habit:

But the second was not now indeed in the house, but still not yet in the tomb, he had been carried out of the walls, but not committed to the ground. He who raised the dead maiden who was not yet carried out, raised this dead man who was now carried out, but not yet buried. There remained a third case, that He should raise one who was also buried; and this He did in Lazarus.

On the call to repent before sin becomes a settled custom:

The dead within has not arisen, let him arise when he is carried out. Let him repent him of his deed, let him at once return to life; let him not go to the depth of the grave, let him not receive the load of habit upon him.

St. Ambrose of Milan (c. 339–397)

From his Exposition of the Gospel of Luke, as preserved in the Catena Aurea on Luke. Public domain.

On the widow as the Church, raising her young by her tears:

For this widow surrounded by a great multitude of people seems to be more than the woman who was thought worthy by her tears to obtain the resurrection of her only son, because the Church recalls the younger people from the funeral procession to life by the contemplation of her tears, who is forbid to weep for him to whom resurrection was promised.

On the bier of wood as a figure of the Cross:

This dead man was borne on the bier by the four material elements to the grave, but there was a hope of his rising again because he was borne on wood, which though before it did not benefit us, yet after Christ had touched it, began to profit to life, that it might be a sign that salvation was to be extended to the people by the wood of the cross.

St. Bede the Venerable (c. 672–735)

From his Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, as preserved in the Catena Aurea on Luke. Public domain.

On the witnesses gathered for the miracle:

Nain is a city of Galilee, within two miles of mount Tabor. But by the divine counsel there were large multitudes accompanying the Lord, that there might be many witnesses of so great a miracle.

On compassion shown first, then the raising:

But well does the Evangelist testify that the Lord is first moved with compassion for the mother, and then raises her son, that in the one case He might set before us for our imitation an example of piety, in the other He might build up our belief in His wonderful power.

On the dead man carried beyond the gate as the open sinner:

But the dead man who was carried without the gate of the city ... signifies a man rendered senseless by the deadening power of mortal sin, and no longer concealing his soul's death within the folds of his heart, but proclaiming it to the knowledge of the world, through the evidence of words or deeds as through the gate of the city.

Note on sources and other Fathers

The chain on this passage is unusually full. Cyril is quoted from his own Commentary on Luke (Sermon 36) and Augustine from his Sermon 48 on the New Testament; the rest are preserved in the Catena Aurea on Luke. Among them, Gregory of Nyssa, Titus of Bostra and Theophylact are public-domain in English only through the Catena, as is Ambrose's reading of the widow as the Church and the bier of wood as a figure of the Cross — material once thought available only in copyrighted modern editions. The Catena also records Maximus on the eight resurrections of Scripture, culminating in Christ's own, which we note here rather than quote.

Patristic sources

Read the sources: Cyril on Luke, Sermons 26–38 (Tertullian.org)