Paragraph 7:9–10
7:9a
When Jesus heard this: The word this refers to what the officer said in his message.
He marveled at the centurion: The word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as the centurion is literally “him” in Greek. You may find it helpful in your own language to use a clarifying word rather than the pronoun “him.” For example:
Jesus was amazed at the officer (God’s Word)
He marveled: The phrase He marveled means that “Jesus was amazed.” The word marveled implies that he was very pleased and surprised. It pleased Jesus that the officer recognized his authority and had such great faith in him. Do not use a word that means to be amazed about something bad or displeasing.
7:9b
Turning to the crowd following Him, He said: Jesus turned around to look behind him at the crowd of people and to speak to them.
7:9c
I tell you: Jesus often used the words I tell you to begin a statement that he wanted to emphasize. It indicates that the statement was important and that people should listen carefully to it. Some other ways to show this emphasis could be:
• Use a phrase before Jesus’ statement. For example:
Let me tell you this
-or-
Listen
-or-
I assure you
• Express the emphasis within Jesus’ statement. For example:
In all of Israel I’ve never found anyone with this much faith! (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
I have certainly not found such great faith, not even in Israel.
If you have another way in your language to emphasize an important statement, consider using it here.
not even in Israel have I found such great faith: The phrase not even in Israel have I found such great faith implies, “I have not found any Israelites who believe ⌊in me⌋ as much ⌊as this Gentile does⌋!” The phrase implies that Jesus expected the Jews to believe in him. He did not expect a Gentile (non-Jew) to believe in him more than the Jews did. Many Jews believed that Jesus could heal sick people by touching them. However, this Gentile believed that Jesus could heal from a distance just by speaking a word.
in Israel: The phrase in Israel means “among the Israelites.” It does not refer to location. This officer lived in Israel, but he was not one of the people (descendants) of Israel.
great faith: The word faith refers here to confidence that Jesus/God can do a certain thing. Here the officer had great faith because he was completely sure that Jesus had the authority to heal his servant with a word. See believe, Meaning 2, in the Glossary.
© 2009, 2010, 2013 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.