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The Centurion of Capernaum and his Servant
1 AND when he had finished all his words in the hearing of the people, he entered into Capharnaum. 2 And the servant of a certain centurion, who was dear to him, being sick, was ready to die. 3 And when he had heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the ancients of the Jews, desiring him to come and heal his servant. 4 And when they came to Jesus, they besought him earnestly, saying to him: He is worthy that thou shouldest do this for him. 5 For he loveth our nation; and he hath built us a synagogue. 6 And Jesus went with them. And when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent his friends to him, saying: Lord, trouble not thyself; for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof. 7 For which cause neither did I think myself worthy to come to thee; but say the word, and my servant shall be healed. 8 For I also am a man subject to authority, having under me soldiers: and I say to one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doth it. 9 Which Jesus hearing, marvelled: and turning about to the multitude that followed him, he said: Amen I say to you, I have not found so great faith, not even in Israel. 10 And they who were sent, being returned to the house, found the servant whole who had been sick. The Widow's Son at Nain
(Luke 7:11-17) 11 And it came to pass afterwards, that he went into a city that is called Naim; and there went with him his disciples, and a great multitude. 12 And when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold a dead man was carried out, the only son of his mother; and she was a widow: and a great multitude of the city was with her. 13 Whom when the Lord had seen, being moved with mercy towards her, he said to her: Weep not. 14 And he came near and touched the bier. And they that carried it, stood still. And he said: Young man, I say to thee, arise. 15 And he that was dead, sat up, and began to speak. And he gave him to his mother. 16 And there came a fear on them all: and they glorified God, saying: A great prophet is risen up among us: and, God hath visited his people. 17 And this rumour of him went forth throughout all Judea, and throughout all the country round about. John the Baptist's Question and Jesus' Answer
(Luke 7:18-23 Matt 11:2-6) 18 And John's disciples told him of all these things. 19 And John called to him two of his disciples, and sent them to Jesus, saying: Art thou he that art to come; or look we for another? 20 And when the men were come unto him, they said: John the Baptist hath sent us to thee, saying: Art thou he that art to come; or look we for another? 21 (And in that same hour, he cured many of their diseases, and hurts, and evil spirits: and to many that were blind he gave sight.) 22 And answering, he said to them: Go and relate to John what you have heard and seen: the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are made clean, the deaf hear, the dead rise again, to the poor the gospel is preached: 23 And blessed is he whosoever shall not be scandalized in me. Jesus' Witness concerning John
(Luke 7:24-35; 16:16 Matt 11:7-19) 24 And when the messengers of John were departed, he began to speak to the multitudes concerning John. What went ye out into the desert to see? a reed shaken with the wind? 25 But what went you out to see? a man clothed in soft garments? Behold they that are in costly apparel and live delicately, are in the houses of kings. 26 But what went you out to see? a prophet? Yea, I say to you, and more than a prophet. 27 This is he of whom it is written: Behold I send my angel before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee. 28 For I say to you: Amongst those that are born of women, there is not a greater prophet that John the Baptist. But he that is the lesser in the kingdom of God, is greater than he. 29 And all the people hearing, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with John's baptism. 30 But the Pharisees and the lawyers despised the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized by him. 31 And the Lord said: Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? and to what are they like? 32 They are like to children sitting in the marketplace, and speaking one to another, and saying: We have piped to you, and you have not danced: we have mourned, and you have not wept. 33 For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and you say: He hath a devil. 34 The Son of man is come eating and drinking: and you say: Behold a man that is a glutton and a drinker of wine, a friend of publicans and sinners. 35 And wisdom is justified by all her children. The Anointing in Bethany
36 And one of the Pharisees desired him to eat with him. And he went into the house of the Pharisee, and sat down to meat. 37 And behold a woman that was in the city, a sinner, when she knew that he sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment; 38 And standing behind at his feet, she began to wash his feet, with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. 39 And the Pharisee, who had invited him, seeing it, spoke within himself, saying: This man, if he were a prophet, would know surely who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him, that she is a sinner. 40 And Jesus answering, said to him: Simon, I have somewhat to say to thee. But he said: Master, say it. 41 A certain creditor had two debtors, the one who owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. 42 And whereas they had not wherewith to pay, he forgave them both. Which therefore of the two loveth him most? 43 Simon answering, said: I suppose that he to whom he forgave most. And he said to him: Thou hast judged rightly. 44 And turning to the woman, he said unto Simon: Dost thou see this woman? I entered into thy house, thou gavest me no water for my feet; but she with tears hath washed my feet, and with her hairs hath wiped them. 45 Thou gavest me no kiss; but she, since she came in, hath not ceased to kiss my feet. 46 My head with oil thou didst not anoint; but she with ointment hath anointed my feet. 47 Wherefore I say to thee: Many sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved much. But to whom less is forgiven, he loveth less. 48 And he said to her: Thy sins are forgiven thee. 49 And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves: Who is this that forgiveth sins also? 50 And he said to the woman: Thy faith hath made thee safe, go in peace. Gospel Harmony on Luke 7
The Centurion of Capernaum and his Servant
(Luke 7:1-10; 13:28-29 Matt 8:5-13 Mark 7:30 John 4:46-54)
There is an antilogy here; for Luke 7:1 relates the same miracle differently. He does not say that the centurion himself came to Christ but sent to Him, first Jews, then his friends, to ask the favour of Him that He would heal His servant. Wherefore in St. Luke we must supply from S. Matthew, that after his friends, the centurion himself, last of all, came to Christ, either for the sake of doing Him honour, or because of the urgency of the disease, and the imminent peril of death. This is the opinion of S. Chrysostom (Hom. 26), Theophylact, and Euthymius. Or you may suppose that the centurion is here said to have come to Christ, and besought and answered Him, not personally, but by his friends. This is the opinion of St. Augustine and Bede. (Cornelius a Lapide)
What is here said seems to disagree with Luke’s account, “When the centurion heard concerning Jesus, he sent unto him elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant.” [Luke 7:3] And again, “When he was come nigh to the house, the centurion sent friends unto him, saying, Lord, trouble not yourself, for I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof.” Matthew therefore intended to state summarily all that passed between the centurion and the Lord, which was indeed done through others, with the view of commending his faith; as the Lord spoke, “I have not found so great faith in Israel.” Luke, on the other hand, has narrated the whole as it was done, that so we might be obliged to understand in what sense Matthew, who could not err, meant that the centurion himself came to Christ, namely, in a figurative sense through faith. (St. Augustine Harmony of the Gospels 2.20) Some think, as Chrysostom reports, that this official in the Gospel of John is the same as the centurion mentioned by Matthew (8:5). This is not so, for they differ in four ways. First, because the illness was not the same in each. The centurion was concerned with a paralytic, “My servant is lying paralyzed at home” (Mt 8:6); while this official’s son is suffering from a fever, yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. Secondly, those who are sick are not the same. In the first case, it was a servant, “my servant”; but now we have a son, as it says, whose son. Thirdly, what is requested is different. For when Christ wanted to go to the home of the centurion, the centurion discouraged him, and said: “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only say the word and my servant will be healed” (Mt 8:8). But this official asked Christ to come to his house, Lord, come down before my child dies. Fourthly, the places are different. For the first healing took place at Capernaum, while this one is at Cana in Galilee. So this official is not the same as the centurion, but was from the household of Herod the Tetrarch, or some kind of a herald, or an official of the Emperor. (St. Thomas Aquinas Commentary on John)
John the Baptist's Question and Jesus' Answer
(Luke 7:18-23 Matt 11:2-6)
Therefore John does not ask as being himself ignorant. But as the Savior asks where Lazarus is buried, [note John 11:23] in order that they who showed Him the sepulcher might be so far prepared for faith, and believe that the dead was verily raised again—so John, about to be put to death by Herod, sends his disciples to Christ, that by this opportunity of seeing His signs and wonders they might believe on Him, and so might learn through their master’s enquiry. (St. Jerome)
Matthew proceeds with his narrative in the following terms: “And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end of commanding His twelve disciples, He departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities. Now, when Jn had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, and said unto Him, Art thou He that should come, or do we look for another?” and so on, until we come to the words, “And Wisdom is justified of her children.”(Mt 11:1-19) This whole section relating to Jn the Baptist, touching the message which he sent to Jesus, and the tenor of the reply which those whom he despatched received, and the terms in which the Lord spoke of Jn after the departure of these persons, is introduced also by Luke.(Luke 7:18-35) The order, however, is not the same. But it is not made clear which of them gives the order of his own recollections, and which keeps by the historical succession of the things themselves. (St. Augustine Harmony of the Gospels 2.31) The Anointing in Bethany
(Luke 7:36-50 Matt 26:6-13 Mark 14:3-9 John 12:1-8)
Matthew, then, continuing his narrative from the point up to which we had concluded its examination, proceeds in the following terms: “Then assembled together the chief priests and the elders of the people unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and consulted that they might take Jesus by subtilty and kill Him: but they said, Not on the feast-day, lest there be an uproar among the people. Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, there came unto Him a woman having an alabaster box of precious ointment, and poured it on His head as He sat at meat;” and so on down to the words, “there shall also this that this woman hath done be told for a memorial of her.”(Mt 26:3-13) The scene with the woman and the costly ointment at Bethany we have now to consider, as it is thus detailed. For although Lc records an incident resembling this, and although the name which he assigns to the person in whose house the Lord was supping might also suggest an identity between the two narratives (for Lc likewise names the host “Simon”), still, since there is nothing either in nature or in the customs of men to make the case an incredible one, that as one man may have two names, two men may with all the greater likelihood have one and the same name, it is more reasonable to believe that the Simon in whose house [it is thus supposed, according to Luke’s version, that] this scene at Bethany took place, was a different person from the Simon [named by Matthew]. For Luke, again, does not specify Bethany as the place where the incident which he records happened. And although it is true that he in no way particularizes the town or village in which that occurrence took place, still his narrative does not seem to deal with the same locality. Consequently, my opinion is, that there is but one interpretation to be put upon the matter. That is not, however, to suppose that the woman who appears in Matthew was an entirely different person from the woman who approached the feet of Jesus on that occasion in the character of a sinner, and kissed them, and washed them with her tears, and wiped them with her hair, and anointed them with ointment, in reference to whose case Jesus also made use of the parable of the two debtors, and said that her sins, which were many, were forgiven her because she loved much. But my theory is, that it was the same Mary who did this deed on two separate occasions, the one being that which Lc has put on record, when she approached Him first of all in that remarkable humility, and with those tears, and obtained the forgiveness of her sins.(Luke 7:36-50) For John, too, although he has not given the kind of recital which Lc has left us of the circumstances connected with that incident, has at least mentioned the fact, in commending the same Mary to our notice, when he has just begun to tell the story of the raising of Lazarus, and before his narrative brings the Lord to Bethany itself. The history which he offers us of that transaction proceeds thus: “Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary; and her sister Martha. It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.”(Jn 11:1-2) By this statement Jn attests what Lc has told us when he records a scene of this nature in the house of a certain Pharisee, whose name was Simon. Here, then, we see that Mary had acted in this way before that time. And what she did a second time in Bethany is a different matter, which does not belong to Luke’s narrative, but is related by three of the evangelists in concert, namely, John, Matthew, and Mark.(Jn 12:1-8 Matt 26:3-13 Mark 14:3-9)
Let us therefore notice how harmony is maintained here between these three evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and John, regarding whom there is no doubt that they record the self-same occurrence at Bethany, on occasion of which the disciples also, as all three mention, murmured against the woman, ostensibly on the ground of the waste of the very precious ointment. Now the further fact that Matthew and Mc tell us that it was the Lord’s head on which the ointment was poured, while Jn says it was His feet, can be shown to involve no contradiction, if we apply the principle which we have already expounded in dealing with the scene of the feeding of the multitudes with the five loaves. For as there was one writer who, in giving his account of that incident, did not fail to specify that the people sat down at once by fifties and by hundreds, although another spoke only of the fifties, no contradiction could be supposed to emerge. There might indeed have seemed to be some difficulty, if the one evangelist had referred only to the hundreds, and the other only to the fifties; and yet, even in that case, the correct finding should have been to the effect that they were seated both by fifties and by hundreds. And this example ought to have made it plain to us, as I pressed it upon my readers in discussing that section, that even where the several evangelists introduce only the one fact each, we should take the case to have been really, that both things were elements in the actual occurrence. In the same way, our conclusion with regard to the passage now before us should be, that the woman poured the ointment not only upon the Lord’s head, but also on His feet. It is true that some person may possibly be found absurd and artful enough to argue, that because Mc states that the ointment was poured out only after the alabaster vase was broken there could not have remained in the shattered vessel anything with which she could anoint His feet. But while a person of that character, in his endeavours to disprove the veracity of the Gospel, may contend that the vase was broken, in a manner making it impossible that any portion of the contents could have been left in it, how much better and more accordant with piety must the position of a very different individual appear, whose aim will be to uphold the truthfulness of the Gospel, and who may therefore contend that the vessel was not broken in a manner involving the total outpouring of the ointment! Moreover, if that calumniator is so persistently blinded as to attempt to shatter the harmony of the evangelists on this subject of the shattering of the vase, he should rather accept the alternative, that the [Lord’s] feet were anointed before the vessel itself was broken, and that it thus remained whole, and filled with ointment sufficient for the anointing also of the head, when, by the breakage referred to, the entire contents were discharged. For we allow that there is a due regard to the several parts of our nature when the act commences with the head, but [we may also say that] an equally natural order is preserved when we ascend from the feet to the head. The other matters belonging to this incident do not seem to me to raise any question really involving a difficulty. There is the circumstance that the other evangelists mention how the disciples murmured about the [wasteful] outpouring of the precious ointment, whereas Jn states that Judas was the person who thus expressed himself, and tells us, in explanation of the fact, that “he was a thief.” But I think it is evident that this same Judas was the person referred to under the [general] name of the disciples, the plural number being used here instead of the singular, in accordance with that mode of speech of which we have already introduced an explanation in the case of Philip and the miracle of the five loaves. It may also be understood in this way, that the other disciples either felt as Judas felt, or spoke as he did, or were brought over to that view of the matter by what Judas said, and that Matthew and Mc consequently have expressed in word what was really the mind of the whole company; but that Judas spoke as he did just because he was a thief, whereas what prompted the rest was their care for the poor; and further, that Jn has chosen to record the utterance of such sentiments only in the instance of that one [among the disciples] whose habit of acting the thief he believed it right to bring out in connection with this occasion). (St. Augustine Harmony of the Gospels 2.79) |