Matthew 27:54

Matthew 27:54. The centurion, who superintended the execution.

And they that ware with him. The soldiers, as is evident from the phrase: watching him. Mark and Luke speak of the centurion only, the latter adding the general consternation of other spectators.

The things that were done, i.e. , how Jesus died, as Mark tells us. The two accounts supplement each other, but show the usual independence.

Truly this was the Son of God, or, ‘God's Son.' The heathen officer may have used these words in the heathen sense: hero or demigod; but this is not probable. For he had heard this accusation, must have known something of Jewish opinion; heathen became Christians through the preaching of the cross, why not through the sight of the dying Redeemer. Such a conversion would be thus indicated. Nor is it certain that this phrase meant demigod. It might be the germ of a Christian confession without being expressed in the full form, the Son of God. Comp, the statement of Luke (Luke 23:47) which does not oppose this view. Only the centurion thus spoke, but as the soldiers ‘feared, some decided spiritual effect may have been produced on them also.