Matthew 8:5
Ver. 5. And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum,.... Was returned from his journey through Galilee, to the place where he before dwelt, and is called his own city, Mt 9:1
there came unto him a centurion, a Roman officer, ham rv, "a commander of an hundred men", as the Hebrew Gospel by Munster reads it: though the number of men under a "centurion" was more, according to some accounts.
"A band (it is said {g}) made two centuries, each of which consisted of an hundred and twenty eight soldiers; for a doubled century made a band, whose governor was called an ordinary "centurion".''
Such an one was Cornelius, a centurion of a band, Ac 10:1. The other person that was healed was a Jew. The next instance of Christ's power and goodness is the servant of a Gentile; he came to do good both to Jews and Gentiles;
beseeching him, not in person, but by his messengers; see Lu 7:3 and the Jews {h} say, wtwmk Mda lv wxwlvv, "that a man's messenger is as himself".
{g} Alex. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 6. c. 13. {h} T. Bab. Beracot, fol. 34. 2.