Luke Chapter 7 verse 2 Holy Bible
And a certain centurion's servant, who was dear unto him, was sick and at the point of death.
read chapter 7 in ASV
And a certain captain had a servant who was very dear to him; this servant was ill and near to death.
read chapter 7 in BBE
And a certain centurion's bondman who was dear to him was ill and about to die;
read chapter 7 in DARBY
And a certain centurion's servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die.
read chapter 7 in KJV
read chapter 7 in WBT
A certain centurion's servant, who was dear to him, was sick and at the point of death.
read chapter 7 in WEB
and a certain centurion's servant being ill, was about to die, who was much valued by him,
read chapter 7 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 2. - And a certain centurion's servant; literally, slave. The difference is important, as we shall see in the picture presented to us of the centurion's character. A centurion was an officer in the Roman army: the grade answers to the modern European captain - German, hauptmann; the command included a hundred soldiers. Scholars are not agreed respecting the special service of this particular officer. Some consider he was a Greek or Syrian holding a commission under the prince of the country, the tetrach Herod Antipas; others, that he was in the service of the empire, with a small detachment of the garrison of Caesarea, doing duty at the important lake-city, probably in connection with the revenue. It is clear that Roman garrisons at this period were dotted about the various centres of population in these semi-dependent states. At Jerusalem we know a considerable Roman force was stationed, professedly to keep order in the turbulent capital, but really, no doubt, to overawe the national party. Was sick, and ready to die. St. Matthew calls the disease paralysis, and adds that the sufferer was in extreme pain. The disorder was probably some dangerous form of rheumatic fever, which not unfrequently attacks the region of the heart, and is accompanied with severe pain, and proves in many instances fatal. The ordinary, paralysis would scarcely be accompanied with the acute pain mentioned by St. Matthew.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(2) A certain centurion's servant.--See Notes on Matthew 8:5-13.Was dear unto him.--Literally, was precious, the dearness of value, but not necessarily of affection. St. Luke is here, contrary to what we might have expected, less precise than St. Matthew, who states that the slave was "sick of the palsy." Had the physician been unable to satisfy himself from what he heard as to the nature of the disease? The details that follow show that he had made inquiries, and was able to supply some details which St. Matthew had not given.
