Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Luke 7:1-10, A centurion who built the synagogue
Jewish elders in Capernaum plead for a centurion whose valued slave is dying, because he loves their nation and built their synagogue. The centurion sends word that Jesus need not come under his roof, only give the order.
Luke 7:1-10, in every translation this tool compares.
A centurion's slave, dear to him, is near death, and he sends Jewish elders to ask Jesus to come. They say he deserves it, since he loves their people and built their synagogue. As Jesus nears the house, friends bring another message: the centurion is not worthy to have Jesus under his roof, but as a man under authority who gives orders, he knows Jesus need only say the word. Jesus is amazed, says he has not found such faith in Israel, and the slave is well.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/synagogue\/","n":"The synagogue","s":"The local gathering place where Jews met on the Sabbath to pray and study Scripture. It was also a community center, run by people of standing.","r":""}
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A centurion led sixty to eighty men in practice (Keener and his notes), though Strauss, in the Zondervan backgrounds commentary, gives a century as about a hundred men. Whose soldier he was is disputed. Strauss says Roman troops were not stationed in Galilee until AD 44, so this man probably served Antipas in police or customs work, or was a retired Roman soldier; Garland describes Capernaum as a frontier town with a customs office and a detachment of soldiers under a centurion, and the Zondervan archaeology handbook calls it a garrison town with Roman soldiers. Keener puts the weight of Luke's version on worthiness: the elders say the man deserves it, and he says he does not. Strauss reads the scene through Roman patronage: the centurion is the town's patron, the elders act as his brokers, and by saying he is not worthy he makes himself Jesus' client; the Mishnah also says that "the dwelling places of Gentiles are unclean." Under the white limestone synagogue now standing at Capernaum lie the black basalt foundations of an earlier one, most likely the synagogue Jesus knew (Price and House; the Zondervan atlas; the cultural backgrounds article on the Capernaum synagogue).
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Luke 7:1-2, 7:3-5 and 7:6
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Luke 7:2, 7:5 and 7:6
- Mark L. Strauss, Luke, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Luke 7:2, 7:3-5, 7:5, 7:6 and 7:10
- David E. Garland, Mark, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, sidebar Capernaum
- J. Randall Price and H. Wayne House, Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology, ch. 12, Luke 7:5 The Capernaum Synagogue
- Carl G. Rasmussen, Zondervan Atlas of the Bible, The Life of Christ
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, article The Capernaum Synagogue
