Revised Standard Version has heard him and Good News Translation “heard this.” It can also be “heard what the centurion said” or “heard these words.”

Marveled is used of Jesus only here and in Mark 6.6. In the Marcan context it occurs as a negative reaction of Jesus toward the lack of faith on the part of the Jews; here, of course, the reaction is positive because of the faith of the Gentile soldier. This same verb appears elsewhere in Matthew in 8.27; 9.33; 15.31; 21.20; 22.22; 27.14.

To say Jesus marveled translators can use expressions such as “was surprised,” “… astonished,” or “… amazed.” It is possible to tie the first two clauses of the sentence more closely together, as in “Jesus was amazed to hear what he said” or “Jesus was really surprised to hear this.”

Those who followed him is probably a reference to the “great crowds” of 8.1. It may need to be expressed as “those people who were following him.”

Truly, I say to you: this formula serves to make emphatic the words of Jesus which follow. See comment at 5.18. Here it may be “Believe me” or “It is the truth, I tell you.”

Not even in Israel have I found such faith represents the words of some Greek manuscripts which TC-GNT believes to be influenced by the parallel in Luke 7.9. The UBS Greek New Testament supports the Greek text translated in the RSV footnote: “with no one in Israel have I found such faith” (“B” decision, signifying some degree of doubt). Good News Translation, with slight restructuring, follows the UBS Greek text, “I have never found anyone in Israel with faith like this.” New English Bible adopts the same text as Revised Standard Version and translates “Nowhere, even in Israel, have I found such faith.” New American Bible apparently follows the same Greek text as Revised Standard Version, though the translators seem to move in the direction of a compromise rendering, “I have never found this much faith in Israel.”

Such faith obviously means “a person who has such faith as this” or “a person who trusts in God so much.” In fact it is precisely because of this that most translators will translate the Revised Standard Version and the UBS Greek text in the same way. Even if one follows Revised Standard Version, it is unusual to speak of “such faith” by itself. “A person with faith like that” will generally be more natural. Such faith can refer to quantity, as in “who trusts God so much,” or to manner, as in “who trusts in this way,” although the two obviously overlap a great deal in this context. Another expression can be “who has such strong faith.”

The phrase even in Israel indicates that normally Jesus would expect to find stronger faith among the Jews than among outsiders. This idea may be conveyed by a phrase like that in New English Bible cited above, or “I have never found anyone, not even one of the Jews, with faith like this.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .