{Centurion's servant} (Hekatontarchou tinos doulos). Slave
of a certain centurion (Latin word centurio, commander of a
century or hundred). Mr 15:39,44 has the Latin word in Greek
letters, kenturi(936e). The centurion commanded a company which
varied from fifty to a hundred. Each cohort had six centuries.
Each legion had ten cohorts or bands ( Ac 10:1 ). The centurions
mentioned in the N.T. all seem to be fine men as Polybius states
that the best men in the army had this position. See also Lu
23:47 . The Greek has two forms of the word, both from hekaton,
hundred, and arch(935c), to rule, and they appear to be used
interchangeably. So we have hekatontarchos; here, the form is
-archos, and hekatontarch(8873), the form is -arch(8873) in verse
6 . The manuscripts differ about it in almost every instance.
The -archos form is accepted by Westcott and Hort only in the
nominative save the genitive singular here in Lu 7:2 and the
accusative singular in Ac 22:25 . See like variation between
them in Mt 8:5,8 (-archos) and Mt 8:13 (arch(8869)). So also
-archon ( Ac 22:25 ) and -arch(8873) ( Ac 22:26 ). {Dear to him}
(aut(9369) entimos). Held in honour, prized, precious, dear ( Lu
14:8 1Pe 2:4 Php 2:29 ), common Greek word. Even though a slave
he was dear to him. {Was sick} (kak(9373) ech(936e)). Having it bad.
Common idiom. See already Mt 4:24 8:16 Mr 2:17 Lu 5:31 , etc.
Mt 8:6 notes that the slave was a paralytic. {And at the point
of death} ((886d)ellen teleut(8369)n). Imperfect active of mell(935c)
(note double augment (885c)) which is used either with the present
infinitive as here, the aorist ( Re 3:16 ), or even the future
because of the future idea in mell(935c) ( Ac 11:28 24:15 ). He was
about to die.
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