NOBLEMAN (no'b'l-mao).
The word so rendered in John iv:46 is the Greek flacriXiK6s, bas-il-ee-kos', which is somewhat varied in signification. It may mean: (1) Descend ed from a king. (2) 'Tirnplrns roi) fiacreXlcos, hoo-fiay ref ace too bas-il-eh'oce, one belonging to the court. (3) Strat-ee-oh'tace arpariarrns flaatX Iws, a soldier of the king-, in which latter sense it often occurs in Josephus. (4) Yoog-en'ace (Gr. serylvns, well-born, and EtvOinoros, anth'ro-fios, man), used in the parable of the talents (Luke xix:12) as a title of the person who placed his servants in charge of certain amounts, for which they were to be held accountable, thus testing their fidelity and ability.
This person was, therefore, probably of the court of Herod Antipas, who reigned over Galilee and Perma (Tholuck, Commentar Z14)11 Johan. iv: 46). He has been identified with Chuza, Herod's steward (Luke viii :3), and with Manaen, Herod's foster brother (Acts xiii :I). These, of course,
are mere conjectures. He was presumably a JeW, and is certainly not to be identified, as he has sometimes been, with the centurion whose servant Jesus healed (Matt. viii :5; Luke vii :2-io).
NOD (nod), (Heb. node), the land to which Cain withdrew, and in which he appears to have settled (Gen. iv:16).
While the site of Paradise itself remains unde termined, it is useless to seek for that of the land of Nod. This land, wherever it was, could not have had a name till Cain went to it ; and it was doubtless called Nod (which signifies flzght,wan dering, from the circumstance that Cain fled to it. Von Bohlen identifies it with India. Sayce secs in it the Manda of the cuneiform inscriptions. To the Rabbis it was sufficient that it lay somewhere in the east and away from Eden, whither Adam had been banished.