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The AD 60 Caesarean centurion
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At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort, a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God. About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, “Cornelius.” And he stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. And now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter. He is lodging with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea.” When the angel who spoke to him had departed, he called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among those who attended him, and having related everything to them, he sent them to Joppa. (Luke’s history of the Acts of the Apostles 10, first published around AD 62) |
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A Caesarean centurion? For many recent decades it was believed that the Roman name for Jersey was Caesarea. Recently Andium has replaced Caesarea as the favoured Roman name for Jersey – hence Andium Homes Limited, the Island’s present government housing provider.
But “centurion”? A centurion was a Roman soldier in charge, presumably of at least 100 soldiers. The “cent”, of course, means “hundred” and Jersey uses this in the title given to the Centeniers, honorary police officers in each of Jersey’s 12 parishes, despite the numerical mishmach.
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But this first century AD Caesarean centurion is special – for me at any rate – for one particular reason. The reason is given in the paragraph in bold red above. He was a good man and the Lord God saw his goodness and decided to make known to him the facts concerning Jesus. Jesus had been crucified in Jerusalem (not that far away from Caesarea) 30 years earlier.
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So often one hears that only “sinners” are called to go to Jesus for forgiveness and mercy….
This Caesarean centurion was, in fact, an extremely good man. So good that the Lord God wanted him to hear everything about Jesus – and then make his own decisions about that man.
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Many Jersey residents believe in God. Many believe that it is abundantly clear and right that they do all kinds of good in their lives – and rightly so.
And many, like Cornelius, haven’t heard much about this Jesus.
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There are four first-century biographies of Jesus. The four writers never put their names to the books they wrote. But scholars have worked out who they were. One was Matthew, a Jewish man and a former tax-collector who had collected taxes to remit to Rome (after taking his no doubt fulsome but undisclosed percentage). A traitorous tax collector in fact.
If you would like, as a Caesarean (Jersey) “agnostic”, to read and discuss Mathew’s biography this year, do please contact me. I’d love to do that with you and alone or with a few others who wish to do so.
For the avoidance of doubt, I’m no “Peter”: We’ll leave Matthew to do the talking.
Do click “Reply”.
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Sinner Syvret |
