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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The Centurion of Capernaum.
The prayer of the centurion:
v. 1. Now when He had ended all His sayings in the audience of the people, He entered into Capernaum.
v. 2. And a certain centurion's servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die.
v. 3. And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto Him the elders of the Jews, beseeching Him that He would come and heal his servant.
v. 4. And when they came to Jesus, they besought Him instantly, saying, That he was worthy for whom He should do this;
v. 5. for he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue.
Jesus brought His long discourse to a close. It was addressed to the hearing of the people; they were not merely to listen inattentively and forget all the precepts within a few minutes, but their hearing, their understanding, was to take hold of the great truths, in order that they might become the property of the mind, and be received into the heart. Sometime afterward, Jesus entered into Capernaum. In this city there lived a certain centurion, officer of a Roman garrison stationed there, probably on account of the great highway that led through here from Damascus to the Mediterranean Sea. This Roman officer had become acquainted with books of the Jews and with the hopes of the Messiah, of whom they were always speaking. He had also come to the conclusion that Jesus, by whose hand such great miracles were being performed throughout Galilee, must be the promised Messiah. This centurion had a servant who, though a slave, was very dear to him, for he was a humane master. This servant had been taken ill and was at the point of death. Since the reports concerning Christ's activity, which reached the officer from time to time, had given him the conviction that here was the great promised prophet of the Jews, he sent a delegation to Jesus at this time. The men whom he sent were carrying out his embassy, speaking in his name; he spoke through them, Mat_8:5. They were elders of the people, probably officers of the synagogue, for not all Jewish leaders joined in the campaign of hate against Jesus. These men carried out the centurion's wishes in a very able manner. They not only stated the earnest prayer that the Lord would come and restore to full health the servant, but they also added some reasons why Jesus ought to grant the request. They declared the centurion to be worthy of help, since he was not one of the proud Romans that vexed and oppressed the Jews upon every occasion, but rather loved the nation. He had lived among them for so long that he had conceived a genuine liking for their doctrine and for their religious institutions. This affection had taken the form of building a synagogue for the Jews as a token of regard. "The Deutsche Orient gesellschaft, which was carrying on excavations in Egypt, Babylonia, and Assyria, undertook the investigation of the remains of ancient synagogues in Galilee and the Jaulan. Among these they excavated the ruins of the synagogue at Tell Hum on the Sea of Galilee, the probable site of Capernaum. Here they found the remains of a once beautiful synagogue which was probably built in the fourth century A. D. Beneath this is the floor of a still older building. The last is probably the synagogue in which so many of the incidents of the ministry of Christ in Capernaum took place, the one built by a Roman centurion."