Editing Nahum (section)

==Life==
Little is known about Nahum's personal history. His name means "comfort",<ref>[[Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc.]], [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nahum%201%3A1-2&version=NABRE#fen-NABRE-27005a Footnote a at Nahum 1:1 in the New American Bible Revised Edition], accessed on 14 September 2024</ref> and is derived from  the same [[root (linguistics)|root]] as the Hebrew verb meaning "to comfort".<ref>Cook, G., [https://www.tyndalebulletin.org/article/29407.pdf Nahum's Prophetic Name], ''[[Tyndale Bulletin]]'', 67.1 (2016) 37-40, accessed on 14 September 2024</ref> He came from the town of Alqosh ([[Book of Nahum|Nahum]] 1:1), which scholars have attempted to identify with several cities, including the modern [[Alqosh]] in northern [[Iraq]] and [[Capernaum]] of northern [[Galilee]].<ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10670a.htm Nahum] at [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/index.html ''The Catholic Encyclopedia'']</ref> He was a very nationalistic Hebrew, however, and lived amongst the Elkoshites in peace. Nahum, called "the Elkoshite", is the seventh in order of the minor prophets. According to [[Jerome]], Nahum's Elkosh was a little town in [[Galilee]].<ref>https://biblehub.com/commentaries/nahum/1-1.htm</ref> This identification could explain how the famous New Testament city of [[Capernaum]] got its name.<ref>https://faith.nd.edu/capernaum/</ref> 

Scholars with a preference for [[Hebrew]] manuscripts place Nahum's prophecy after the Assyrian king [[Ashurbanipal]]'s [[Sack of Thebes]] in 663 B.C. This view is the current majority opinion because the city of Thebes is referred to in the past tense in the [[Masoretic Text]] of Nahum 3:8-10. However, both the [[Septuagint]] and [[Vulgate]] refer to the city in the present tense, and the former opinion held by scholars was that Nahum lived about a century earlier, before both the [[Assyrian captivity|captivity of the ten lost tribes]] and the Sack of Thebes.<ref>https://biblehub.com/sep/nahum/3.htm</ref><ref>https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nahum%203&version=VULGATE</ref> The first-century Jewish historian [[Flavius Josephus]]<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/L326JosephusJewishAntiquitiesVIII1213|title=Vol. VI: Jewish Antiquities, Books IX–XI|last=Josephus|first=Flavius|publisher=William Heinemann|year=1958|series=Loeb Classical Library|volume=326|location=London|pages=[https://archive.org/details/L326JosephusJewishAntiquitiesVIII1213/page/n140 125]–129, XI.xi.2–3|translator-last=Marcus|translator-first=William}}</ref> places Nahum's life during the reign of [[Jotham]]. This view was also held by the Catholic scholar [[Thomas Worthington (Douai)|Thomas Worthington]] in his notes for the original [[Douay-Rheims Bible]], writing: "Nahum prophesied about 50 years after [[Jonah]] ... 135 before the destruction of Niniveh."<ref>https://philologic.northwestern.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.9:1:39.bie</ref> In this view, rather than Ashurbanipal, Nahum's prophecy would have been directed at [[Tiglath-Pileser III]], who revitalized the Neo-Assyrian Empire into a world power again and conquered most of the Levant, defeating and subjugating previously influential kingdoms, including [[Aram-Damascus]]. Tiglath-Pileser was contemporary with the reign of Jotham.