{"id":21885,"date":"2021-11-01T03:05:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-01T08:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apologeticspress.org\/?p=21885"},"modified":"2021-11-02T10:05:12","modified_gmt":"2021-11-02T15:05:12","slug":"did-jesus-actually-speak-to-the-centurion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apologeticspress.org\/did-jesus-actually-speak-to-the-centurion\/","title":{"rendered":"Did Jesus Actually Speak to the Centurion?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Q:<\/p>\n<p>In comparing the two accounts of Jesus healing the centurion\u2019s servant, Matthew indicates that the centurion came to Jesus personally. At the same time, Luke explains that he sent others to plead with Jesus on his (and his servant\u2019s) behalf. How can both of these accounts be true?<\/p>\n<p>A:<\/p>\n<p>The accounts in question are found in Matthew 8:5-13 and Luke 7:1-10. Indeed, Matthew indicates that \u201cwhen Jesus had entered Capernaum, <strong>a centurion came to Him<\/strong>, pleading with Him\u201d (Matthew 8:5). On the other hand, Luke notes that when the centurion \u201cheard about Jesus, <strong>he sent elders of the Jews to Him<\/strong>, pleading with Him to come and heal his servant\u201d (Luke 7:3; cf. 7:6). Do the differences in these accounts demand that we judge them contradictory, or can they be reasonably and justly harmonized?<\/p>\n<p>To help answer this question, consider a scenario where the President of the United States sends two individuals from his administration to your house with an official invitation to dine at the White House. What might you <strong>truthfully<\/strong> tell your friends about this encounter? To one friend, you might give every detail, describing the <strong>two individuals<\/strong> who came to your house, what <strong>they<\/strong> said to you, and how you responded to <strong>them<\/strong>, etc. To another friend, you might simply say, \u201cThe <strong>President<\/strong> has asked me to come to eat at the White House, and I told <strong>him,<\/strong> \u2018Yes!\u2019\u201d The two different versions you tell are totally different, but both are true. How can the second account be truthful? Because \u201che who acts through another is deemed in law to do it himself\u201d<sup>1<\/sup>\u2014a legal principle (known as the \u201claw of agency\u201d)<sup>2<\/sup> that billions of people around the world have understood and accepted for millennia.<sup>3<\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Though some may not like it, and others (who continually cry \u201cBible contradiction\u201d) may \u201cnot have it,\u201d<sup>4<\/sup> the fact is, the Bible writers <strong>frequently<\/strong> (and logically) employed this widely practiced and accepted, legal principle of proxy in their penning of Scripture. Before turning our attention back to the centurion\u2019s interaction with Jesus, consider a few (of the many) examples of the \u201claw of agency\u201d in Scripture.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Moses wrote about Joseph, who was second in command of all of Egypt (Genesis 41:37-44), repeatedly doing things that he undoubtedly <strong>ordered <\/strong>to be done (and not literally done by him). The text says that <strong>Joseph <\/strong>\u201c<strong>gathered<\/strong>\u2026and <strong>laid up the food<\/strong> in the cities; <strong>he laid up in every city the food<\/strong> of the fields which surrounded them. <strong>Joseph gathered very much grain<\/strong>, as the sand of the sea, until <strong>he stopped counting<\/strong>\u201d (Genesis 41:48-49). Later, \u201c<strong>Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold<\/strong> to the Egyptians\u201d (Genesis 41:56). \u201c<strong>Joseph<\/strong>\u201d also \u201c<strong>gathered up all the money<\/strong> that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, for the grain which they bought; and <strong>Joseph brought the money <\/strong>into Pharaoh\u2019s house\u201d (Genesis 47:14). What\u2019s more, \u201c<strong>Joseph gave<\/strong>\u201d and \u201c<strong>fed<\/strong>\u201d the Egyptians \u201c<strong>with bread<\/strong> in exchange for all their livestock\u201d (Genesis 47:17). Most everyone easily and rightly understands that all these statements are made in light of <strong>Joseph\u2019s authority <\/strong>and <strong>not <\/strong>of him personally doing each and every one of these individual tasks (on behalf of hundreds of thousands, or perhaps millions of people). It truthfully can be said that what Joseph authorized and commanded, \u201che did.\u201d Like all sorts of leaders in the past and present, Joseph was viewed as ultimately responsible for Egypt\u2019s success or failure (at least during seven years of plenty and seven years of famine\u2014Genesis 41:1-47:26). All those actions done <strong>on Joseph\u2019s behalf<\/strong> were done (in a very real sense) \u201c<strong>by Joseph<\/strong>.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>At one point, Joseph reminded his brothers that they had sold him \u201c<strong>into Egypt<\/strong>\u201d (Genesis 45:4), when technically they sold him to the <strong>Midianites<\/strong> (Genesis 37:36), who in turn sold him into Egypt. Nearly 2,000 years later, Stephen used Joseph\u2019s same language to describe Joseph being sold by his brothers \u201cinto Egypt\u201d\u2014Acts 7:9. Truly, this type of speech was used, understood, and perfectly acceptable among Israel <strong>for 2,000 years<\/strong>!<\/li>\n<li>The Gospel writers frequently use such acceptable legal language throughout their accounts of the life of Christ. For example, John wrote that \u201cthe Pharisees had heard that <strong>Jesus <\/strong>made and baptized more disciples than John (though,\u201d John explains, \u201c<strong>Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples<\/strong>)\u201d (John 4:1-2).<\/li>\n<li>Prior to Jesus\u2019 triumphal entry into Jerusalem during the final week of His life, Matthew, Mark, and Luke all indicate that He instructed <strong>two of His disciples<\/strong>, saying, \u201cGo\u2026find a colt\u2026and bring it here\u201d (Luke 19:30; Matthew 21:2; Mark 11:2). The <strong>disciples<\/strong> then \u201cbrought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and He sat on it\u201d (Mark 11:7; cf. Matthew 21:7; Luke 19:35). Yet, when John briefly addresses these same events, he simply notes, \u201c<strong>Jesus<\/strong>, when <strong>He had found a young donkey<\/strong>, sat on it\u201d (12:14). Did Jesus personally obtain the donkey? No. However, what Jesus commanded, \u201cHe did\u201d (in the \u201claw-of-agency\u201d sense).<\/li>\n<li>One of the most well-known examples of this type of language is found in Acts 1:18. Luke mentions that <strong>Judas <\/strong>\u201cpurchased a field with the wages of iniquity,\u201d yet literally it was the <strong>chief priests<\/strong> who used the deceased Judas\u2019s 30 pieces of silver, which he had returned to them, to buy the potter\u2019s field (Matthew 27:3-10).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The accounts of Jesus speaking \u201cto the centurion\u201d are easily harmonized by considering that (1) \u201che who acts through another is deemed in law to do it himself\u201d; and (2) the Bible writers frequently used this language throughout Scripture. Did the humble centurion<sup>5<\/sup> plead with Jesus via the Jewish elders (in Luke 7:3) and through his friends (in Luke 7:6)? Yes. Did Jesus respond to the centurion through these same men? It certainly seems so (Matthew 8:7; Luke 7:3-9). <strong>Might it also be the case<\/strong> that at some point, the centurion personally came to where Jesus and the crowd were located in Capernaum, but not necessarily in Jesus\u2019 immediate presence? Yes. And, though not demanded, could it be that Jesus also momentarily bypassed the proxy and spoke directly to the centurion? Indeed, such is possible.<\/p>\n<p>Whereas Matthew gives a more summarized view of the interaction between Jesus and the centurion, omitting the technical details regarding those who were sent on the centurion\u2019s behalf (Luke 7:3-8), Luke includes those details. On the other hand, whereas Matthew includes more of Jesus\u2019 hard-hitting speech on this occasion (Matthew 8:10-13), Luke gives a very abbreviated form (Luke 7:9). As expected from two honest, independent writers, we have two different (but harmonious!) accounts.<\/p>\n<h2>Endnotes<\/h2>\n<p><sup>1<\/sup> From the Latin maxim, \u201c<em>Qui facit per alium, facit per se<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><sup>2<\/sup> See \u201cAgency Law and Legal Definition\u201d (2021), USLegal, https:\/\/definitions.uslegal.com\/a\/agency\/.<\/p>\n<p><sup>3<\/sup> If a man hires an assassin to murder the President, both the assassin and the man who hired him would be guilty of murder. In fact, the \u201cman behind the murder\u201d (who didn\u2019t actually pull the trigger yet proposed and funded it) would likely be prosecuted to a greater degree and given a more severe sentence upon being found guilty \u201c<strong>of murder<\/strong>.\u201d Indeed, \u201che who acts through another is deemed in law to do it himself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><sup>4<\/sup> That is, they seem unwilling to listen to any possible explanation that potentially absolves the Bible writers of error.<\/p>\n<p><sup>5<\/sup> Who, as a Roman soldier leading 100 men, would have been accustomed to \u201cdoing things\u201d through the soldiers under his command.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In comparing the two accounts of Jesus healing the centurion\u2019s servant, Matthew indicates that the centurion came to Jesus personally. At the same time, Luke explains that he sent others to plead with Jesus on his (and his servant\u2019s) behalf. How can both of these accounts be true?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":21893,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"kids-category":[],"people":[274],"bible-book":[181,221,223],"language":[168],"age-group":[173],"publication":[248],"class_list":["post-21885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alleged-discrepancies","people-eric-lyons","bible-book-new-testament","bible-book-matthew","bible-book-luke","language-english","age-group-adults","publication-reason-revelation"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/apologeticspress.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/LI-Did-Jesus-Actually-Speak-to-the-Centurion-EL-02.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apologeticspress.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apologeticspress.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apologeticspress.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apologeticspress.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apologeticspress.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21885"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/apologeticspress.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21903,"href":"https:\/\/apologeticspress.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21885\/revisions\/21903"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apologeticspress.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apologeticspress.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apologeticspress.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apologeticspress.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21885"},{"taxonomy":"kids-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apologeticspress.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kids-category?post=21885"},{"taxonomy":"people","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apologeticspress.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/people?post=21885"},{"taxonomy":"bible-book","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apologeticspress.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bible-book?post=21885"},{"taxonomy":"language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apologeticspress.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/language?post=21885"},{"taxonomy":"age-group","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apologeticspress.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/age-group?post=21885"},{"taxonomy":"publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apologeticspress.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publication?post=21885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}