Acts 22:25

22:25 When they had stretched him out for the lash, ¹  Paul said to the centurion ²  standing nearby, “Is it legal for you to lash a man who is a Roman citizen ³  without a proper trial?” ⁴ 

Acts 27:1

Paul and Company Sail for Rome

27:1 When it was decided we ⁵  would sail to Italy, ⁶  they handed over Paul and some other prisoners to a centurion ⁷  of the Augustan Cohort ⁸  named Julius.

Acts 27:31

27:31 Paul said to the centurion ⁹  and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay with the ship, you ¹⁰  cannot be saved.”

Acts 27:43

27:43 But the centurion, ¹¹  wanting to save Paul’s life, ¹²  prevented them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land, ¹³ 

Matthew 8:5-13

Healing the Centurion’s Servant

8:5 When he entered Capernaum, ¹⁴  a centurion ¹⁵  came to him asking for help: ¹⁶  8:6 “Lord, ¹⁷  my servant ¹⁸  is lying at home paralyzed, in terrible anguish.” 8:7 Jesus ¹⁹  said to him, “I will come and heal him.” 8:8 But the centurion replied, ²⁰  “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. Instead, just say the word and my servant will be healed. 8:9 For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. ²¹  I say to this one, ‘Go’ and he goes, ²²  and to another ‘Come’ and he comes, and to my slave ²³  ‘Do this’ and he does it.” ²⁴  8:10 When ²⁵  Jesus heard this he was amazed and said to those who followed him, “I tell you the truth, ²⁶  I have not found such faith in anyone in Israel! 8:11 I tell you, many will come from the east and west to share the banquet ²⁷  with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ²⁸  in the kingdom of heaven, 8:12 but the sons of the kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” ²⁹  8:13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go; just as you believed, it will be done for you.” And the servant ³⁰  was healed at that hour.

Matthew 27:54

27:54 Now when the centurion ³¹  and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and what took place, they were extremely terrified and said, “Truly this one was God’s Son!”

Luke 7:2

7:2 A centurion ³²  there ³³  had a slave ³⁴  who was highly regarded, ³⁵  but who was sick and at the point of death.

[22:25]  ¹ tn Grk “for the thongs” (of which the lash was made). Although often translated as a dative of means (“with thongs”), referring to thongs used to tie the victim to the whipping post, BDAG 474-75 s.v. ἱμάς states that it “is better taken as a dat. of purpose for the thongs, in which case οἱ ἱμάντες = whips (Posidonius: 87 fgm. 5 Jac.; POxy. 1186, 2 τὴν διὰ τῶν ἱμάντων αἰκείαν. – Antiphanes 74, 8, Demosth. 19, 197 and Artem. 1, 70 use the sing. in this way).”

[22:25]  ² sn See the note on the word centurion in 10:1.

[22:25]  ³ tn The word “citizen” is supplied here for emphasis and clarity.

[22:25]  ⁴ tn Or “a Roman citizen and uncondemned.” BDAG 35 s.v. ἀκατάκριτος has “uncondemned, without due process” for this usage.

[27:1]  ⁵ sn The last “we” section in Acts begins here and extends to 28:16 (the previous one ended at 21:18).

[27:1]  ⁶ sn Sail to Italy. This voyage with its difficulty serves to show how God protected Paul on his long journey to Rome. From the perspective of someone in Palestine, this may well picture “the end of the earth” quite literally (cf. Acts 1:8).

[27:1]  ⁷ sn See the note on the word centurion in 10:1.

[27:1]  ⁸ tn According to BDAG 917 s.v. σεβαστός, “In σπεῖρα Σεβαστή 27:1 (cp. OGI 421) Σεβαστή is likew. an exact transl. of Lat. Augusta, an honorary title freq. given to auxiliary troops (Ptolem. renders it Σεβαστή in connection w. three legions that bore it: 2, 3, 30; 2, 9, 18; 4, 3, 30) imperial cohort.” According to W. Foerster (TDNT 7:175), “In Ac. 27:1 the σπεῖρα Σεβαστή is an expression also found elsewhere for ‘auxiliary troops.’” In no case would this refer to a special imperial bodyguard, and to translate “imperial regiment” or “imperial cohort” might give this impression. There is some archaeological evidence for a Cohors Augusta I stationed in Syria during the time of Augustus, but whether this is the same unit is very debatable.

[27:31]  ⁹ sn See the note on the word centurion in 10:1.

[27:31]  ¹⁰ sn The pronoun you is plural in Greek.

[27:43]  ¹¹ sn See the note on the word centurion in 10:1.

[27:43]  ¹² tn Or “wanting to rescue Paul.”

[27:43]  ¹³ tn BDAG 347 s.v. I. ἔξειμι has “ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν get to land Ac 27:43.”

[8:5]  ¹⁴ sn Capernaum was a town on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee, 680 ft (204 m) below sea level. It was a major trade and economic center in the North Galilean region.

[8:5]  ¹⁵ sn A centurion was a noncommissioned officer in the Roman army or one of the auxiliary territorial armies, commanding a centuria of (nominally) 100 men. The responsibilities of centurions were broadly similar to modern junior officers, but there was a wide gap in social status between them and officers, and relatively few were promoted beyond the rank of senior centurion. The Roman troops stationed in Judea were auxiliaries, who would normally be rewarded with Roman citizenship after 25 years of service. Some of the centurions may have served originally in the Roman legions (regular army) and thus gained their citizenship at enlistment. Others may have inherited it, like the apostle Paul did.

[8:5]  ¹⁶ sn While in Matthew’s account the centurion came to him asking for help, Luke’s account (7:1-10) mentions that the centurion sent some Jewish elders as emissaries on his behalf.

[8:6]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “and saying, ‘Lord.’” The participle λέγων (legwn) at the beginning of v. 6 is redundant in English and has not been translated.

[8:6]  ¹⁸ tn The Greek term here is παῖς (pais), often used of a slave who was regarded with some degree of affection, possibly a personal servant (Luke 7:7 uses the more common term δοῦλος, doulos). See L&N 87.77.

[8:7]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “And he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:8]  ²⁰ tn Grk “But answering, the centurion replied.” The participle ἀποκριθείς (apokriqeis) is redundant and has not been translated.

[8:9]  ²¹ tn Grk “having soldiers under me.”

[8:9]  ²² sn I say to this one ‘Go’ and he goes. The illustrations highlight the view of authority the soldier sees in the word of one who has authority. Since the centurion was a commander of a hundred soldiers, he understood what it was both to command others and to be obeyed.

[8:9]  ²³ tn Though δοῦλος (doulos) is normally translated “servant,” the word does not bear the connotation of a free individual serving another. BDAG notes that “‘servant’ for ‘slave’ is largely confined to Biblical transl. and early American times… in normal usage at the present time the two words are carefully distinguished” (BDAG 260 s.v. 1). The most accurate translation is “bondservant” (sometimes found in the ASV for δοῦλος) in that it often indicates one who sells himself into slavery to another. But as this is archaic, few today understand its force.

[8:9]  ²⁴ tn The word “it” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[8:10]  ²⁵ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[8:10]  ²⁶ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

[8:11]  ²⁷ tn Grk “and recline at table,” as 1st century middle eastern meals were not eaten while sitting at a table, but while reclining on one’s side on the floor with the head closest to the low table and the feet farthest away. The word “banquet” has been supplied to clarify for the modern reader the festive nature of the imagery. The banquet imagery is a way to describe the fellowship and celebration of being among the people of God at the end.

[8:11]  ²⁸ tn Grk “and Isaac and Jacob,” but καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.

[8:12]  ²⁹ sn Weeping and gnashing of teeth is a figure for remorse and trauma, which occurs here because of exclusion from God’s promise.

[8:13]  ³⁰ tc ‡ Most mss read αὐτοῦ (autou, “his”) after “servant.” It is unlikely that the pronoun was accidentally overlooked by such diverse witnesses as א B 0250 0281 ˹ 33 latt. More likely is the probability that Western, Byzantine, and some other scribes added the word for clarification (so C L W Θ 0233 ˹³ Ï sy sa). NA²⁷ has the pronoun in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.

[27:54]  ³¹ sn See the note on the word centurion in Matt 8:5.

[7:2]  ³² sn A centurion was a noncommissioned officer in the Roman army or one of the auxiliary territorial armies, commanding a centuria of (nominally) 100 men. The responsibilities of centurions were broadly similar to modern junior officers, but there was a wide gap in social status between them and officers, and relatively few were promoted beyond the rank of senior centurion. The Roman troops stationed in Judea were auxiliaries, who would normally be rewarded with Roman citizenship after 25 years of service. Some of the centurions may have served originally in the Roman legions (regular army) and thus gained their citizenship at enlistment. Others may have inherited it, like Paul.

[7:2]  ³³ tn The word “there” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.

[7:2]  ³⁴ tn Though δοῦλος (doulos) is normally translated “servant,” the word does not bear the connotation of a free individual serving another. BDAG notes that “‘servant’ for ‘slave’ is largely confined to Biblical transl. and early American times… in normal usage at the present time the two words are carefully distinguished” (BDAG 260 s.v. 1). The most accurate translation is “bondservant” (sometimes found in the ASV for δοῦλος) in that it often indicates one who sells himself into slavery to another. But as this is archaic, few today understand its force. In addition, the parallel passage in Matt 8:6 uses the Greek term παῖς (pais), to refer to the centurion’s slave. This was a term often used of a slave who was regarded with some degree of affection, possibly a personal servant.

[7:2]  ³⁵ tn The term ἔντιμος (entimos) could mean “highly valued,” but this sounds too much like the slave was seen as an asset, while the text suggests a genuine care for the person. More archaically, it could be said the centurion was fond of this slave.