Luke 7:3-5

7:3 When the centurion ¹  heard ²  about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders ³  to him, asking him to come ⁴  and heal his slave. 7:4 When ⁵  they came ⁶  to Jesus, they urged ⁷  him earnestly, ⁸  “He is worthy ⁹  to have you do this for him, 7:5 because he loves our nation, ¹⁰  and even ¹¹  built our synagogue.” ¹² 

[7:3]  ¹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (the centurion) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:3]  ² tn The participle ἀκούσας (akousas) has been taken temporally.

[7:3]  ³ sn Why some Jewish elders are sent as emissaries is not entirely clear, but the centurion was probably respecting ethnic boundaries, which were important in ancient Greco-Roman and Jewish culture. The parallel account in Matt 8:5-13 does not mention the emissaries.

[7:3]  ⁴ tn The participle ἐλθών (elqwn) has been translated as an infinitive in parallel with διασώσῃ (diaswsh) due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[7:4]  ⁵ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[7:4]  ⁶ tn Although the participle παραγενόμενοι (paragenomenoi) is preceded by the Greek article (οἱ, Joi) which would normally cause it to be regarded as an adjectival or substantival participle, most modern translations, probably as a result of the necessities of contemporary English style, render it as a temporal participle (“when they came”).

[7:4]  ⁷ tn Or “implored.”

[7:4]  ⁸ tn Grk “urged him earnestly, saying”; the participle λέγοντες (legontes) is pleonastic (redundant) and has not been translated.

[7:4]  ⁹ tn Grk “Worthy is he to have you do this”; the term “worthy” comes first in the direct discourse and is emphatic.

[7:5]  ¹⁰ tn Or “people.” The use of ἔθνος (eqnos, “nation”) here instead of “God” probably meant the man was not a full proselyte, but that he had simply been supportive of the Jews and their culture. He could have been a God-fearer. The Romans saw a stable religious community as politically helpful and often supported it (Josephus, Ant. 16.6.2 [16.162-165], 19.6.3 [19.300-311]).

[7:5]  ¹¹ tn In the Greek text, the pronoun αὐτός (autos) is included, making this emphatic. Naturally the force of this statement is causative, meaning the centurion either had the synagogue built or donated the cost of its construction.

[7:5]  ¹² sn See the note on synagogues in 4:15.