Luke 7:2

Centurion's servant (Hekatontarcou tino doulo). Slave of a certain centurion (Latin word centurio, commander of a century or hundred). Mark 15:39 Mark 15:44 has the Latin word in Greek letters, kenturiwn. The centurion commanded a company which varied from fifty to a hundred. Each cohort had six centuries. Each legion had ten cohorts or bands ( Acts 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 Luke 23:47 . The Greek has two forms of the word, both from ekaton, hundred, and arcw, to rule, and they appear to be used interchangeably. So we have ekatontarco; here, the form is -arco, and ekatontarch, the form is -arch in verse Luke 6 . The manuscripts differ about it in almost every instance. The -arco form is accepted by Westcott and Hort only in the nominative save the genitive singular here in Luke 7:2 and the accusative singular in Acts 22:25 . See like variation between them in Matthew 8:5 Matthew 8:8 (-arco) and Matthew 8:13 (arch). So also -arcon ( Acts 22:25 ) and -arch ( Acts 22:26 ). Dear to him (autwi entimo). Held in honour, prized, precious, dear ( Luke 14:8 ; 1 Peter 2:4 ; Philippians 2:29 ), common Greek word. Even though a slave he was dear to him. Was sick (kakw ecwn). Having it bad. Common idiom. See already Matthew 4:24 ; Matthew 8:16 ; Mark 2:17 ; Luke 5:31 , etc. Matthew 8:6 notes that the slave was a paralytic. And at the point of death (hmellen teleutain). Imperfect active of mellw (note double augment h) which is used either with the present infinitive as here, the aorist ( Revelation 3:16 ), or even the future because of the future idea in mellw ( Acts 11:28 ; Acts 24:15 ). He was about to die.