Matthew 8:5-13 - Exposition

The healing of the centurion ' s servant. ( Matthew 8:5-10 ; parallel passage Luke 7:1-3 , Luke 7:6-10 . Luke 7:11 , Luke 7:12 , equivalent to Luke 13:28 , Luke 13:29 .) According to St. Luke, the centurion sent first elders of the Jews to plead for him, and afterwards friends, and expressly said by them that he did not think himself worthy to come to Jesus. Their return in verse 10 seems to forbid the supposition that he eventually came. This detailed narrative seems more likely than St. Matthew's, which is not only compressed, but, if taken by itself, gives a wrong idea of what appears to have actually taken place. But quod tacit per alium facit per se , and as Trench points out, this is "an exchange of persons, of which all historical narrative and all the language of our common life is full. A comparison of Mark 10:35 with Matthew 20:20 will furnish another example of the same." The fact is that St. Matthew (or, perhaps, the original framer of the source that he used, or those through whose hands it passed) seizes on the Gentilic origin of the centurion, without troubling himself to record his previous kind and generous attitude towards the Jews, and the interest that they now show on his behalf. This led to the omission of the second group of messengers also, and, of course, to the modification of the language where necessary, e.g. verse 13. For the same reason, St. Matthew records verses 11, 12 in this place.

For the contrast between this and the superficially similar miracle recorded in John 4:46 , sqq. , cf. Trench on that miracle.