And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum,.... Was returned from his journey through Galilee, to the place where he before dwelt, and is called his own city, Matthew 9:1
there came unto him a centurion, a Roman officer, שר מאה, "a commander of an hundred men", as the Hebrew Gospel by Munster reads it: though the number of men under a "centurion" was more, according to some accounts.
"A band (it is said g) made two centuries, each of which consisted of an hundred and twenty eight soldiers; for a doubled century made a band, whose governor was called an ordinary "centurion".''
Such an one was Cornelius, a centurion of a band, Acts 10:1. The other person that was healed was a Jew. The next instance of Christ's power and goodness is the servant of a Gentile; he came to do good both to Jews and Gentiles;
beseeching him, not in person, but by his messengers; see Luke 7:3 and the Jews h say, ששלוחו של אדם כמותו, "that a man's messenger is as himself".
g Alex. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 6. c. 13. h T. Bab. Beracot, fol. 34. 2.