Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 8:8
The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.
8. The centurion answered ] The argument lies in a comparison between the centurion’s command and the authority of Jesus. “If I who am under authority command others, how much more hast thou power to command who art under no authority? If I can send my soldiers or my slave to execute my orders, how much more canst thou send thy ministering spirits to do thy bidding?” The centurion was doubtless acquainted with the Jewish belief on the subject of angels, their subordination and their office as ministers of God.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I am not worthy … – This was an expression of great humility. It refers, doubtless, to his view of his personal unworthiness, and not merely to the fact that he was a Gentile. It was the expression of a conviction of the great dignity and power of the Saviour, and of a feeling that he was so unlike him that he was not suitable that the Son of God should come into his dwelling. So every truly penitent sinner feels – a feeling which is appropriate when he comes to Christ.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 8. But speak the word only] Or instead of read , speak by word or command. This reading is supported by the most extensive evidence from MSS., versions, and fathers. See here the pattern of that living faith and genuine humility which ought always to accompany the prayer of a sinner: Jesus can will away the palsy, and speak away the most grievous torments. The first degree of humility is to acknowledge the necessity of God’s mercy, and our own inability to help ourselves: the second, to confess the freeness of his grace, and our own utter unworthiness. Ignorance, unbelief, and presumption will ever retard our spiritual cure.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The centurion answered, and said,…. This, according to Lu 7:6 was said by his friends in his name, when he understood that Christ had agreed to come to his house, with the elders of the Jews, he first sent to him; and after he was actually set out with them, and was in the way to his house; who, conscious of his own unworthiness, deputes some persons to him, to address him in this manner,
Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof. This is not said as rejecting and despising the presence and company of Christ; but is expressive of his great modesty and humility, and of his consciousness of his own vileness, and unworthiness of having so great a person in his house: it was too great a favour for him to enjoy. And if such a man was unworthy, having been an idolater, and lived a profane course of life, that Christ should come into his house, and be, though but for a short time, under his roof; how much more unworthy are poor sinful creatures (and sensible sinners see themselves to be so unworthy), that Christ should come into their hearts, and dwell there by faith, as he does, in all true believers, however vile and sinful they have been?
But speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. As the former expression declares his modesty and humility, and the mean apprehensions he had of himself; so this signifies his great faith in Christ, and the persuasion he had of his divine power: he does not say pray, and my servant shall be healed, as looking upon him barely as a man of God, a prophet, one that had great interest in God, and at the throne of grace; but speak, command, order it to be done, and it shall be done, which is ascribing omnipotence to him; such power as was put forth in creation, by the all commanding word of God; “he spake, and it was done, he commanded, and it stood fast”, Ps 33:9 yea, he signifies that if he would but speak a word, the least word whatever; or, as Luke has it, “say in a word”; let but a word come out of thy mouth, and it will be done.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
1) “The centurion answered and said, Lord,” (apokritheis de ho hekatontarchos ephe kurie) “Then responding the centurion said, Lord,” in an attitude of humility before and respect for Jesus, though the centurion was an high command army officer. Humility and respect for God and before holy things is always to be desired, Pro 15:33; Pro 18:2; Pro 22:4.
2) “I am not worthy,” (ouk eimi hikanos) “I am not (at all) worthy;” This was an index of great character for a Roman army officer to say to a Jew, Luk 15:19; Luk 15:21. Much like the prodigal said to his father upon his return.
3) “That thou shouldest come under my roof:” (hina mou hupo ten stegen eiselthes) “To merit or in order that you might enter under my roof,” even come through the door into my home. Yet, Christ surely came into his heart because of this earnest man’s faith; Everyone, saint or sinner, who humbles himself in faith before the Lord shall be exalted, Job 22:29; Luk 14:11; Luk 18:14; Jas 4:10; 1Pe 5:5-6.
4) “But speak the word only,” (alla monon eipe logo) “But you only say it (you will) in a word;” This expression indicates the centurion’s absolute faith in the power of the word of Jesus Christ, Heb 11:6; Psa 107:19-20.
5) “And my servant shall be heated.” (kai eathesetai ho pais mou) “And my young son-servant will be healed,” or made whole. The centurion affirmed his faith in Jesus as Lord by telling how that soldiers under his command, as he represented the Roman army command, did his bidding because of the civil powers of the Emperor who backed him. He then concluded that Jesus as Lord over heaven’s power could command angelic realms and order diseases to cease, by His power, Luk 7:6-8.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Mat 8:8
. Lord, I do not deserve that thou shouldest come under my roof Matthew’s narrative is more concise, and represents the man as saying this; while Luke explains more fully, that this was a message sent by his friends: but the meaning of both is the same. There are two leading points in this discourse. The centurion, sparing Christ by way of honoring him, requests that Christ will not trouble himself, because he reckons himself unworthy to receive a visit from him. The next point is, that he ascribes to Christ such power as to believe, that by the mere expression of his will, and by a word, his servant may recover and live. There was astonishing humility in exalting so highly above himself a man who belonged to a conquered and enslaved nation. It is possible, too, that he had become accustomed to the haughty pretensions of the Jews, and, being a modest man, did not take it ill to be reckoned a heathen, and therefore feared that he would dishonor a Prophet of God, if he pressed him to enter the house of a polluted Gentile. However that may be, it is certain that he speaks sincerely, and entertains such reverence for Christ, that he does not venture to invite him to his house, nay, as is afterwards stated by Luke, he reckoned himself unworthy to converse with him. (502)
But it may be asked, what moved him to speak of Christ in such lofty terms? The difficulty is even increased by what immediately follows, only say the word, and my servant will be healed, or, as Luke has it, say in a word: for if he had not acknowledged Christ to be the Son of God, to transfer the glory of God to a man would have been superstition. It is difficult to believe, on the other hand, that he was properly informed about Christ’s divinity, of which almost all were at that time ignorant. Yet Christ finds no fault with his words, (503) but declares that they proceeded from faith: and this reason has forced many expositors to conclude, that the centurion bestows on Christ the title of the true and only God. I rather think that the good man, having been informed about the uncommon and truly divine works of Christ, simply acknowledged in him the power of God. Something, too, he had undoubtedly heard about the promised Redeemer. Though he does not distinctly understand that Christ is God manifested in the flesh, (1Ti 3:16,) yet he is convinced that the power of God is manifested in him, and that he has received a commission to display the presence of God by miracles. He is not therefore chargeable with superstition, as if he had ascribed to a man what is the prerogative of God: but, looking at the commission which God had given to Christ, he believes that by a word alone he can heal his servant.
Is it objected, that nothing belongs more peculiarly to God than to accomplish by a word whatever he pleases, and that this supreme authority cannot without sacrilege be yielded to a mortal man? The reply is again easy. Though the centurion did not enter into those nice distinctions, he ascribed this power to the word, not of a mortal man, but of God, whose minister he fully believed Christ to be: on that point he entertained no doubt. The grace of healing having been committed to Christ, (504) he acknowledges that this is a heavenly power, and does not look upon it as inseparable from the bodily presence, but is satisfied with the word, from which he believes such a power to proceed.
(502) “ Il ne s’est pas estime digne d’aller parler a Christ;” — “he did not think himself worthy to go and talk to Christ.”
(503) “ Toutefois Christ ne prend pas ces paroles comme dites de l’aventure et sans intelligence.” — “Yet Christ does not take these words as spoken at random and without understanding.”
(504) “ Pource que Christ avoit receu la vertu de donner gairison;”— “because Christ had received the power of giving healing.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(8) Lord, I am not worthy.In St. Lukes report, the friends deliver the message as beginning with Trouble not thyself, the word being a colloquial one, which starting from the idea of flaying, or mangling, passed into that of worrying, vexing, and the like. The sense of unworthiness implied at once the consciousness of his own sins, and the recognition of the surpassing holiness and majesty of the Teacher he addressed.
Speak the word only.This was the special proof of the speakers faith. He had risen above the thought of a magic influence, operating by touch or charm, to that of a delegated power depending only on the will of Him who possessed it.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
‘And the centurion answered and said, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed.”
The centurion takes the point. He possibly recognises that a Jewish prophet would be hesitant about entering an ‘unclean’ Gentile house where proper rituals of cleanliness have not been observed. He is not, of course, yet aware that Jesus rises above all such things, making clean by His presence. But that does not explain why he applies the idea of unworthiness only to himself. His words indicate that he is even more aware of his own undeserving. ‘I am not worthy’ is a recognition of personal undeserving. Religiously he is ‘poor in spirit’ and ‘mourning’ over sin, and ‘meek’. In other words he is open to blessing (Mat 5:3; Mat 5:5). He may be a God-fearer but he recognises his unworthiness to welcome this awesome Jewish prophet under his roof. His huge faith in, and admiration of, Jesus is thus revealed. For he has no doubt that Jesus has but to speak the word and his servant will be healed, whether He comes under his roof or not. We can compare the same sense of unworthiness in John the Baptiser when Jesus went to him for baptism (Mat 3:14). The purity of Jesus was such that He made good men feel unworthy. But along with this sense of unworthiness went great faith. And that was all that the centurion needed.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Mat 8:8-9. Lord, I am not worthy, &c. The centurion with great humility answers our Lord, that he means he should not take the trouble of going to his house, as he was a Gentile; but only that he would be so good as to command his servant’s cure, though at a distance; for he knew his power equal to that effect; diseases and even devils of all kinds being as much subject to Christ’s commands, as his soldiers were to him. He knew that he himself was only an inferior officer; for the Roman centurions were subject to the command of their respective tribunes, as our captains are to that of their colonels. “I am only an inferior officer,” says he, “and yet, what I command is done even in my absence; how much more what thou commandest, who art Lord of all!” Some of the heathens formed very grand ideas of the divine power: thus Cicero says, Nihil est quad Deus efficere non posset, et quidem sine labore ullo. Ut enim hominum membra nulla contentione mente ipsa ac voluntate moveantur, sic numine Deorum omnia regi, moveri, mutarique possent. See Nat. Deor. lib. 3. “There is nothing which God cannot effect, and that without any labour; for as the members ofmen are moved without any difficulty by the mere act of their will, so can the Deity direct and govern all things.” But the excellency and the peculiarity of the centurion’s faith consisted in his applying this sublime idea to Jesus, who by outward appearance was only a Man. His faith seems to have taken rise, as was above hinted, from the miraculous cure performed some time before on a nobleman’s son at Capernaum; for as the centurion dwelt there, he might know that at the time of the cure Jesus was not in Capernaum, but at Cana, at the distance of a day’s journey from the sick, when he performed it; but this faith could have been only speculative and inefficacious, if the centurion had not already yielded to and experienced a measure of the power of divine grace.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Mat 8:8 . ] Dat. of the means and instrument, as in Luk 7:7 ; speak it, i.e. command, with a word , that he become whole. This is by way of expressing a contrast to the proffered personal service. Lobeck, Paralip . p. 525.
Here again the does not represent the infinitive construction, but: I am not sufficient (worthy enough) for the purpose that Thou shouldst go (Joh 1:27 ) under my roof (Soph. Ant . 1233). As a Gentile by birth, and loving, as he does, the Jewish people (Luk 7 ), he feels most deeply his own unworthiness in presence of this great miracle-worker that has arisen among them, and “non superstitione, sed fide dixit, se indignum esse,” Maldonatus.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
Notes
Mat 8:8 Mat 8:14 Mat 8:21 Mat 8:26
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
8 The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.
Ver. 8. Lord, I am not worthy, &c. ] Fidei mendica manus; faith is an emptying grace, and makes a man cry out with Pomeran: Etiamsi non sum dignus, nihilominus tamen sum indigens. Although I am not worthy, none the less I am yet needy. By faith we come to see him that is invisible. Now, the more a man seeth of God, the less he seeth by himself; the nearer he draweth to God, the more rottenness he feeleth in his bones. Lord, I am hell; but thou art heaven (said Mr Hooper, martyr, at his death); I am swill and a sink of sin, but thou art a gracious God, &c.
But speak the word only, &c. ] The centurion’s humility was not more low than his faith lofty; that reached up unto heaven, and in the face of human weakness descries omnipotence.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
8. ] The centurion heard that the Lord was coming, Luk 7:6 , and sent friends to Him with this second and still humbler message. He knew and felt himself, as a heathen, to be out of the fold of God, a stranger to the commonwealth of Israel; and therefore unworthy to receive under his roof the Redeemer of Israel.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 8:8 , : the Baptist’s word, chap. Mat 3:11 , but the construction different in the two places, there with infinitive, here with : I am not fit in order that. This is an instance illustrating the extension of the use of in later Greek, which culminated in its superseding the infinitive altogether in modern Greek. On the N. T. use of , vide Burton, M. and T., 191 222. Was it because he was a Gentile by birth, and also perhaps a heathen in religion, that he had this feeling of unworthiness, or was it a purely personal trait? If he was not only a Gentile but a Pagan, Christ’s readiness to go to the house would stand in remarkable contrast to His conduct in the case of the Syro-Phnician woman. But vide Luk 7:5 . , speak (and heal) with a word. A bare word just where they stand, he thinks, will suffice.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
worthy = fit. Not “worthy” (morally), but “fit” socially.
come = enter.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
8.] The centurion heard that the Lord was coming, Luk 7:6, and sent friends to Him with this second and still humbler message. He knew and felt himself, as a heathen, to be out of the fold of God, a stranger to the commonwealth of Israel; and therefore unworthy to receive under his roof the Redeemer of Israel.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 8:8. , roof) Although not a mean one, cf. Luk 7:5. There were others whose reverence did not prevent them from seeing and touching the Lord, see ch. Mat 9:18; Mat 9:20. The same internal feeling may manifest itself outwardly in different modes, yet all of them good.- , command by word) Thus does the centurion declare his belief that the disease will yield to our Lords command. Some few copies have rather more carelessly, ,[358] say the word.-, shall be healed) The centurion replies by this glorious word: our Lord had said modestly, , I will cure.[359]- , my boy) A kinder mode of speech than if he had said , my slave.
[358] BCbc Orig. 4,278d and Vulg. read . Rec. Text, without good authority, has .-ED.
[359] The word used by the centurion was confined to the notion of healing, and cognate with that which denoted a physician: that employed by our Lord had also the signification of attending upon, and was cognate with one which denoted an attendant. Bengels remark applies not to our Lords meaning, but to the mode in which He expressed it.-(I. B.)
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
I am: Mat 3:11, Mat 3:14, Mat 15:26, Mat 15:27, Gen 32:10, Psa 10:17, Luk 5:8, Luk 7:6, Luk 7:7, Luk 15:19, Luk 15:21, Joh 1:27, Joh 13:6-8
but: Mat 8:3, Num 20:8, Psa 33:9, Psa 107:20, Mar 1:25-27, Luk 7:7
Reciprocal: 2Ki 5:11 – Naaman Psa 42:8 – command Psa 105:16 – Moreover Psa 147:15 – sendeth Eze 10:11 – whither Jon 2:10 – General Mat 9:18 – come Mar 9:22 – if Luk 5:12 – if Luk 8:41 – and besought Joh 4:53 – at the Act 22:25 – the centurion Act 23:17 – one
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE ONLY TRUE FAITH
The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy. When Jesus heard it, He marvelled, and said I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.
Mat 8:8-10
In Christ Jesus life is one, and there ought to be no division between things secular and things spiritual, things bodily and things heavenly; they must be one, absolutely one.
I. What is true faith?This incident brings out a very magnificent truth. It teaches us first of all that here is true faith. Faith is not the glib utterance of any form of words or any principle of doctrine, but faith is the submission of the whole being to the will of the Holy One, Who stands before us as the true representative of authority and government. When our souls, our bodies, and our whole being and property are brought into absolute submission to His will, then, and then only, are we men of faith.
II. Rest for the soul.If we could only get this principle before us it would set at rest all our present troubled condition of soul. You who are exercised about your duties to society, have you ever thought that if Christ were really in authority, and there were no divided life due to the setting up of two principles, all this quibbling about social duties and pleasures would disappear? If you make yourself one with the world on the plea of raising the world to God, you will have to pay for it in the day of the Lords settlement. In these days there is much talk about a longing for power. Learn to obey, and you will soon be in command.
Prebendary H. W. Webb-Peploe.
Illustration
Not until we have carefully studied the military history of Rome shall we fully understand the mighty force of the words to which this man gives utterance: I am a man under authority. This one idea pervaded his entire existence; this one lawthe law of obediencegoverned his whole life; for the instant a man was called to join the Roman army he gave himself over to one law of life; henceforth he must not know the possession of property or the possession of relatives, he must not know the possession of a will, or even the possession of hope, in one sense; he was simply a vessel, an instrument, taken possession of by the state, to be absolutely, ceaselessly, under the control of that great power which had called him into its service. The Roman imperium over-shadowed the man and absorbed him and all that he had into itself. But while the imperium took him into its power, at the same time it transmitted its power to him; he therefore became not only an instrument of the state, but he also became possessed of the whole power of that state to carry out its will, so far as that will could be carried out in one individual.
(SECOND OUTLINE)
THE GREATNESS OF FAITH
Since, then, what Christ saw and honoured in the centurion was greatness of faith, it is our duty to look carefully at what composed its greatness.
I. The greatness of faith.What are its characteristics?
(a) The perception of the Truththe love of the Truth, for the Truths sake.
(b) Efforteffort of thought, effort of action.
(c) A simple castinga case told, the rest left to God; the most eloquent of all beseeching, when you tell a fact.
(d) Abasementdeepening as faith gets victories; and yet the more achieved, the more expected.
(e) Grand views of Godof His hand, of His heart, of His universal reign, of His minute care, the imagery of common life sanctified to the souls great health.
(f) An implicit reliance upon a single wordmaking a word in fact, finding space, distance, human reasoning, physical difficulties, unworthiness, past sin, self, all nothing; the mind of God, the character of God, the will of God, the promise of God, supreme, absolute, alone.
II. How did that faith come?Just as the answer came: by the ways you cannot see; a thing unfathomable, a grace, a creation. All faith is in Christ. What makes faith grow larger? For answer look into the constitution of faith. Faith is
(a) A clear understanding of truth.
(b) A converting of the abstract truth that you understand, into a thing real and existent to the mind.
(c) An appropriationa making your own, a personal apprehension of that understood and realised truth. That is faithfirst, to comprehend what is invisible, then to picture what is invisible, then to appropriate what is invisible.
III. All do not travel the same road to faith.It will be just as God pleases to lead you. All faith, and every increment of faith, is a distinct gift of Goda separate act of creative power. But even the actings of Gods free, omnipotent grace are subject to laws.
(a) Faith lies in the affections, and not in the intellect.
(b) Faith will never co-exist with known and allowed sin.
(c) Faith grows by its own actings.
IV. Christ in the heart.But, far more than anything else, the greatness of faith is the Christ we have in our hearts. Once to have found and felt Christ a Saviour, that gives faith its best impulse. The more you live with Christ, and the more you live on Christ, and the more you live to Christ, the more and the faster will your faith grow. And there is no limit. The last meltings into sight are faith; and the Christ you love becomes gradually the Christ you see.
The Rev. James Vaughan.
Illustration
Whether it be in sorrow, or whether it be in joy, he who would enlarge his faith must feed upon promises. To dwell on a promiseto take that promise to Godto pray over itto wait, and then to see an answerto do this again and againsometimes do it about temporal things, and sometimes about spiritualto go about all the day long picking up the returns of your own petitions everywheresuch promises become histories, and desires become facts. And that makes faith rock-like. If the centurions faith was strong when he came to Jesus, how much stronger, think you, was it, when he went home, and found his servant quite well?
(THIRD OUTLINE)
FAITH AND RIGHTEOUSNESS
Faith is a superior property bestowed by God whereby the truth is apprehended without the evidence of experience or argument proved; it belongs partly to the understanding, and partly to the will.
I. Distrust brought sin.What was it that induced our first parents to eat of that which was forbidden? It was distrust of God, and in that one thought of distrust there lay all the future disobedience of the world.
II. Trust brings righteousness.Just as in the one thought of distrust there lies every possible sin, so also in the one thought of trust there lies every possible good. Thus we see why the faith of the centurion was accounted unto him for righteousness, because in that one thought of trust there lay all the activity of his serviceSpeak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. We are not to be saved so much for the accuracy of our theology, or for the correctness by which we take in our dogmas; but we are to be saved by a simple trust which can be common alike to the ignorant and the learned; to the man and to the child.
III. It is the foundation of all spiritual life.We see in the centurion the great example of this virtue, that simple faith and child-like trust in God is the foundation of all true spiritual life. He had probably never seen Christ before, but he was ready to accept Him as the Son of God. It is quite true that faith is the gift of God, but it is a gift which we can in a large measure increase by our own co-operation.
IV. It needs the discipline of the will.What is the principal disposing cause of faith? We can learn a lesson from the centurion. In his reply to our Lord there was just one thing brought out, and that is the wonderful state of discipline in which everything connected with him seemed to be. Are we not all in the same position? Are we not so much so that we may say I am a man under authorityunder the authority of Godand just in proportion as I have learned to recognise His authority, and to obey His laws, so shall I be able to command my will?
V. The world to conquer and heaven to win.We have the world to conquer, and we have heaven to win. St. John tells us the victory which overcometh the worldeven our faith. We must lay this foundation first, and then we can go on to learn those other things of hope and love.
The Rev. L. Verey.
Illustration
True piety is found in very unlikely places, and bears fruit in very unfavourable soil. As in the interior of a desert you may find an oasis of date-palms and verdant herbage, so in the heart of degraded man, long hard and barren, Divine grace produces large clusters of heavenly fruit. At midnight, and amid the stony hills of Luz, a ladder of communication joined earth and heaven; and there is no situation so desolate that mans mightiest Friend cannot be found. Obadiah kept the flame of his piety aglow in the poisoned atmosphere of Ahabs house. Amid the depravities of the antediluvian age, Enoch walked with God. On the festering dunghill of Egyptian vice, Josephs piety was fragrant as a violet. Surrounded by luxury and idolatry in Babylons great palace, Daniels faith shone out like Arcturus at midnight. And in the Roman camp, where we expect to find the coarse nature of a soldier made coarser by the foul rites of paganism, lo! there blossoms and bears fruit a godly faith, which puts to shame the unbelief of favoured Jews. It was a plant of grace, which has borne fruit from that day to this.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
8:8
This verse gives us one reason why the centurion had not askel Jesus to come to his home; he did not feel worthy of such a guest. He therefore was to be satisfied with the favor to his servant though absent, and expressed his belief thus.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 8:8. The centurion answered, through friends (Luk 7:6).
Lord, I am not worthy, etc. This humility sprang out of his consciousness that he was a heathen, as well as his esteem of our Lord.
But only say in a word. This means one word of command, as Mat 8:9 shows.
And my servant shall be healed. Humility and faith always go hand in hand.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
The centurion confessed that he felt unfit, Levitically speaking, to entertain Jesus in his home (cf. Mat 5:3). John the Baptist had also expressed a similar feeling of unworthiness (Mat 3:14). The basis for the centurion’s feeling of unworthiness (Gr. hikanos) was his own perception of how Jews regarded Gentile dwellings and the authority that he believed Jesus possessed. He believed Jesus had sufficient authority to simply speak and He could heal his servant (cf. Joh 4:46-53).
All authority in the Roman Empire belonged to the emperor, who delegated authority to others under his command. The Roman Republic ended about 30 B.C., and from then on, beginning with Caesar Augustus, the emperors enjoyed more authority under the Roman Empire. When the centurion gave a command it carried all the authority of the emperor, and people obeyed him. A soldier who might disobey an order the centurion gave was really disobeying the emperor. The centurion realized that Jesus also operated under a similar system. Jesus was under God’s authority, but He also wielded God’s authority. When Jesus spoke, God spoke. To defy Jesus was to defy God. Jesus’ word, therefore, must carry God’s authority to heal sickness. The centurion confessed that Jesus’ authority was God’s authority, and Jesus’ word was God’s word. The centurion believed that Jesus could heal His servant, not that He would heal him. We cannot know God’s will in such matters, but we must believe that He is able to do anything.