Bible Synapse

Did the centurion come to Jesus himself or send others to ask him to heal his servant?

Hard question · The life of Jesus · raised by 3 of the lists sceptics circulate

Different details of one eventA summary and a fuller account
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The passages

Matthew 8:5–13

A centurion comes to Jesus asking him to heal his servant, and says that Jesus need only speak the word.

And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. …

Luke 7:1–10

The centurion sends Jewish elders, then friends, to Jesus, saying he is not worthy to come himself or to have Jesus under his roof.

Now when he had ended all his sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum. And a certain centurion’s servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die. And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly, saying, That he was worthy for whom he should do this: For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue. Then Jesus went with them. And when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself: for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof: …

The objection

Matthew says “there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him” to heal his servant, and records a conversation between them. Luke says the centurion sent elders of the Jews and then friends, and that he did not think himself worthy to come to Jesus at all. Did he come in person or not?

The answer

Matthew tells the story briefly and speaks of the centurion as acting through those he sent, as people did then and still do when they say that a ruler signed a treaty his envoys signed. John Gill notes the Jewish saying that ‘a man’s messenger is as himself’. Scripture often speaks this way: Jesus “made and baptized more disciples than John”, though his disciples did the baptising (John 4:1–2), and Pilate “took Jesus, and scourged him” (John 19:1) by the hands of his soldiers. Matthew does it again in 11:2–3, where John the Baptist, in prison, “sent two of his disciples” and through them asks Jesus, “Art thou he that should come”.

Luke gives the fuller account: Jewish elders came first, pleading for the man who had built their synagogue, and then friends brought the centurion’s own words, “Lord, trouble not thyself: for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof” (Luke 7:6). Matthew reports the same request and the same words as the centurion’s, which they were. Augustine, around AD 400, answered the question in this way: Matthew chose a ‘compendious’ way of saying that the centurion came, because his approach was really made through others, and above all by faith. Jesus’ praise of the man’s faith (Matthew 8:10; Luke 7:9) is the heart of both accounts.

Other answers Christians give

He came as well

Some suggest that after sending the messengers the centurion also came out himself as Jesus drew near, so that Matthew records words he spoke in person. Luke does not rule this out, but most commentators prefer the simpler answer.

From the classic commentators

it is nothing out of the way for Matthew … when thus dealing with an approach on the part of the centurion to the Lord, which was effected in the person of others, to have chosen to express the matter in this compendious method, There came a centurion to Him.Augustine, Harmony of the Gospels II.20 (c. 400), tr. S. D. F. Salmond (1888)
beseeching him, not in person, but by his messengers; see Luke 7:3 and the Jews … say, … ‘that a man’s messenger is as himself’.John Gill, Exposition on Matthew 8:5 (1746–1763)

Sources

Further reading

Raised by: Shabir Ally, 101 Clear Contradictions in the Bible, Bart D. Ehrman, Jesus, Interrupted (2009), The Skeptic’s Annotated Bible. Only the verse references come from these lists.

Checked 2026-10-22. All hard questions