Nobleman

This title (βασιλικός, ‘royal’ or ΠΩΣ toa king’; so Ac 193. 3.18. 25) is given (Jn 4% Ὁ AVm ‘ courtier’ or ‘ ruler’; RVm ‘king’s officer,’ ef. Vulg. regulus) to the man who besought Jesus in Cana to heal his son who was sick at Caper- naum. Opinions have always differed as to the meaning of the title (see Chryst. Hom. 35 on Joh.) It has been taken to mean that he was of the royal (Herodian) family (L. Bos, Exercit. Philolog. p.

41, and others) ; or that he was of the Herodian party (Lightfoot, Hor. Heb., Exercit. on St. J.); or that he was attached to the service of Antipas, who was popularly called king, either in a military or civil capacity (Meyer, Weiss, Godet, and most). The term was used both of royal persons themselves and of those attached to them as officers, courtiers, or soldiers (see exx. in Wetstein); but the usage of Josephus (see Krebs, Observat. in NT e Flav. Jos. p.

144) supports ery the latter application of it here. atian also (Diatessaron) translates ‘officer of the king.’ This man therefore was probably an officer of rank and wealth connected with the court or service of Antipas. He has been identified with Chuza, Herod’s steward (Lk 88), and with Manaen, Herod’s foster- brother (Ac 13%). These, of course, are mere conjectures.

He was ῬΈΠΕΙ a Jew, and is certainly not to be identi- ed, as he has sometimes been, with the centurion whose servant Jesus healed (Mt 85, Lk 71). G. T. PURVES. NOD (73; Samar. 13; LXX, Philo, Jos. Ναΐδ).,, The land to which the fratricide Cain emigrated after the Divine verdict was pronounced on him, Gn 4:6 (J). It is a play on 7; ‘wanderer’ of ν.}3, The subst. 4 ‘wandering’ occurs Ps 56 (regardless of Duhm’s unnecessary emendation).

But it is a mistake to understand the word merely as an allusion to Cain’s punishment. The writer seems to have had a real land of that name in view. Its situation, ‘eastward of Eden,’ is given, and there are not sufficient reasons to take this as a gloss of the author or redactor (Dillmann and Stade), since particular definitions of places are not unusual with Hebrew writers (Gn 1010 195 258, Dt 1189), It is called a ‘land’; and the passage is plain prose.

To dwell and build a city in ‘wanderland’ is a contradiction in terms. Cain’s settlement in Nod was not part of his punishment, but a voluntary emigration, as already Philo (de Poster. Cain. 3) re- marks, ἐθελοντὴς ἐξέρχεται. The ‘orientation’ of the land of Nod has been matter of conjecture. Many (see Dillm. ad loc.) suggest China, from the similarity of sound be- tween Cain and Chin, Zin, Sin, Tien. Von Bohlen identifies it with India.

Sayce sees in it the Manda of the cuneiform inscriptions (HCM 146). To the Rabbis it was sufficient that it lay some- where in the east, and away from Eden, whither Adam had been banished. ‘In all parts’ (sc. of Scrip- ture), says Rashi, ‘the eastern quarter received the murderer, as it is said (Dt 4"), Then Moses severed three cities, ete., toward the rising of the sun’ (see also Midrash Agada, p. 13, ed. Buber, 1894).

It must, however, be remembered that the same author (J) knew of a ee Sema ἀρῶ obliterated every geographi undary. e topography of Cain’s history was to him as asitesdilciyin ee history was prehistoric. A. E. SUFFRIN. NOISE NODAB (273); LXX ναδαβαῖοι; Vulg. Nodab).— Mentioned only 1 Ch δ᾽" in connexion with a war of the trans-Jordanic tribes against the Hagrites. Because it is grou with Jetur and Naphish, it was supposed i= . J.

Ball to be a corruption of Redanah | (Gn 95:5), the last of the twelve tribes of Ishmael. But Kedemah is rightly given in 1 Ch 1", and it is hardly conceivable that the author, or even a copyist, should so shortly after misread it for a name which occurs nowhere else. Delitzsch (New Com. on Gn 25") connects it with Nudébe in the Wady el-butin of the Hauran. But it is more likely that we have here a transcription of Nabatean.

It would be strange that a powerful kingdom like Nabatea should not have proved a formidable neighbour to the trans-Jordanic Israel- ites. And since Nebaioth, which has been by Jos. (Ant. τ. xii. 4), Jerome, and others identified with Nabatea, has not played any important réle in the pre-exilic history of the Jews, we are left to conjecture that 27) should be read 23.

The Nabateans called themselves 183), In the Talmud and Midrash we have respectively ‘p23, ‘»n3, ‘ny, ΠΝΠῸΣ, "N53, "N53, ΜΝ ΤΙ), and πὴ for a Nabatean. The Nabateans were the Nabatu of the Assyrian inscriptions, and Aramean in language, and distinct from the Nabadti (‘Nebaioth’ of the Bible) of Central Arabia. Originally settled east of Assyria, they migrated westward, and founded a kingdom in Arabia Petra, with Petra for their capital (Glaser, Skizze, ii. 418).

For the history of the Nabateans see Schiirer, HJP, Ap. ii., and Euting, Nab. Inschriften, Berl. 1885, with historical notes on p. 81 by Gutschmid. A. E. SUFFRIN.