What does the centurion mean by “Son of God”?

Explanation:

When the centurion and the soldiers with him experience the earthquake and witness Jesus’ death, they confess that Jesus truly was the Son of God. The title Son of God, is one of the most significant titles for Jesus in Matthew, so we ought to conclude that Matthew intends us to understand that the centurion’s confession was a genuine confession that Jesus is the Son of God.⁴ We can detect that Son of God is an important title in Matthew for two reasons. First, Jesus is often referred to as God’s Son (Matthew 2:15; Matthew 3:17; Matthew 17:5; Matthew 11:27). Since Jesus is God’s Son, Jesus is the Son of God. Further, the disciples explicitly label Jesus the Son of God after they witness him calm the storm when they are on the seas.

Counterargument:

While it might be that Jesus is God’s Son, the argument here is that the centurion confessed that Jesus is the Son of God. In other words, the argument is that Jesus carries a special title, that is, Son of God, and the centurion confessed that indeed, the title Son of God belongs to Jesus. The problem is that the definite article is missing from the confession. That is, the centurion confesses, Truly this was a son of God. In other words, Jesus was an important figure of divine origin, and a son of God. Thus, the centurion might have grown into understanding that Jesus is not only a son of God, but the Son of God, but still, the lack of article shows that he has not fully grasped who Jesus is.

Response to counterargument:

This counterargument fails because the article is not normally used for a predicate noun.⁵ In this case, the subject is οὗτος (this), which does not require an article, and the predicate noun is son of God. The predicate noun is what is said about the subject (this), so the predicate noun does not need the article. We see the same construction in Matthew 14:33 when the disciples confess that Jesus is the Son of God. It is also interesting to note that in both Matthew 14:33 and Matthew 27:54 the confession is preceded by ἀληθῶς (truly). Thus, in both cases we have the confessors state, Truly this is/you are the Son of God.⁶

Explanation:

The centurion and soldiers have come to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, in contrast to the Jewish leaders.⁷ We can deduce this because in Matthew 27:40, Matthew explains that while Jesus is on the cross, those who pass by mock him and his status as the Son of God. Specifically, they taunt him by asking why, if Jesus is supposed to be the Son of God, he cannot simply take himself down from the cross. Of course, those mocking Jesus were the Jewish leaders (Matthew 27:41) who should have recognized that Son of God was not simply a title but the identity of the one they crucified.

Yet, Jesus’ identity does not go unnoticed, for the Gentile centurion along with the soldiers under him recognize that truly, Jesus is the Son of God. Thus, we can see that Matthew includes the Jewish leaders’ denials that Jesus is the Son of God, along with the centurion’s genuine confession, to show that salvation has come to the Gentiles.⁸

Counterargument:

That the centurion recognizes that there is something special about Jesus when the Jews do not is not enough to show that the centurion fully understood what was meant by the title Son of God. If all Matthew wants to show is that the Jews rejected Jesus while a Gentile accepted him, the fact that the centurion recognized Jesus in a positive light is enough to make his point (See Interpretation 2, argument b).

Response to counterargument:

While it is true that the mere recognition of Jesus in a positive light is enough to highlight the contrast of the centurion’s attitude toward Jesus with the Jews’ attitude, this is not all that Matthew wants to do. The fact is, Pilate also recognized that there was something special about Jesus, but Pilate does not confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and so we do not see Pilate as anticipating the mission to the Gentiles (Matthew 27:19, Matthew 27:24). On the other hand, the centurion not only looks positively on Jesus, but confesses that Jesus is the Son of God. Such a confession anticipates the mission to the Gentiles.

Possible weaknesses:

One might argue that it took the church centuries to understand what it means that Jesus is the Son of God, so how could this centurion understand this title in potentially a few short hours? Of course, such a weakness would imply that no one in the church truly confesses that Jesus is the Son of God until they understand every aspect the title entails, but such a bar is far too high. A heartfelt confession that Jesus is the Son of God is a genuine confession, even if one does not fully grasp all that entails.

Explanation:

The centurion who confessed that Jesus is the Son of God would have been a Roman. Jesus was a Jewish teacher, who specifically taught the Jews. Since the centurion was a Roman and Jesus was a teacher for the Jews, it is hard to see how the Roman centurion could understand all that it means that Jesus is the Son of God.¹¹ Most likely, when the centurion witnessed Jesus’ death and experienced the earthquake, he recognized that there was something supernatural about Jesus and confessed that he is the Son of God.¹²

Counterargument:

If the centurion did not understand what it means that Jesus is the Son of God, why would he use the same title, Son of God, that the disciples use when they confess that Jesus is the Christ? That is to say, if the centurion simply thought that Jesus was some sort of deity, or was related to the deity, we might expect him to say, Truly this man was divine. Of course, this is not what the centurion says; instead he says that Jesus is the Son of God, a unique name for Christ. Thus, Matthew wants us to understand that the centurion understood Jesus’ identity and confessed it.

Response to counterargument:

Unfortunately for this counterargument, there is a plausible explanation for how the centurion knew that Son of God was Christ’s unique name without him knowing all that it entails. We know that the centurion was present at Jesus’ crucifixion. We also know that the Jewish leaders hurled insults at Jesus as he hung on the cross, and when they did, they called Jesus Son of God. Specifically, they said that if Jesus really was the Son of God, he could take himself down from the cross (Matthew 27:40). It is not unreasonable that the centurion heard the Jewish leaders’ remarks, and when he witnessed Jesus’ death and experienced the earthquake, he could see that the Jewish leaders were wrong. This man really was the Son of God, whatever that title might mean.¹³

Explanation:

Matthew records the fact that the centurion confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, not because the centurion understood the full identity of Jesus, but because it anticipates the mission to the Gentiles.¹⁴ That the gospel would spread to the Gentiles is highlighted by Jesus on several occasions (Matthew 1:3, Matthew 1:5–6; Matthew 8:10–12; Matthew 10:18; Matthew 15:21–28; Matthew 24:14). Further, we know that after the resurrection, Jesus instructs the disciples to spread the gospel to all nations (Matthew 28:18–19). Once again, we see the seeds of this mission in the confession of the centurion who, although he was not thoroughly acquainted with Jewish theology, did admit that somehow, Jesus is the Son of God.

Counterargument:

While it might be that Matthew wants his readers to see that when the centurion confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, the gospel is going out to the Gentiles, this does not rule out the notion that the centurion made a genuine confession. It could be that Matthew wants us to understand both that the centurion truly understood Jesus' identity and that the gospel was going out to the Gentiles. As for how the centurions could understand Jesus’ identity, we might conclude that God produced faith in them.¹⁵

Response to counterargument:

The argument here is not that, because the confession of the centurion anticipates the inclusion of the Gentiles, it is not possible that he understood what it means that Jesus is the Son of God. Rather, the point is that we do not need to decide whether the centurion understood that Jesus is the Son of God because that’s not Matthew’s point.¹⁶ Matthew’s point is that Jesus was rejected by his own people, the Jews, but accepted by a Gentile, which anticipates that the gospel will spread to all Gentiles.

Possible weaknesses:

The weakness of this view is twofold. First, deciding when a person adequately knows what the title Son of God entails is impossible, because Jesus is God, which means that we will never fully understand (in this life) what it means that Jesus is the Son of God. This is proved by the disciples, who abandoned Jesus before the crucifixion, and the early church, who wrestled for hundreds of years to articulate Jesus’ nature. Identifying what the centurion was required to know before his confession should be considered a full confession, is an impossible task. Second, no one knows the heart of the centurion, and since Matthew presents him as confessing that Jesus is the Son of God, we ought to take that as enough to satisfy the question of whether the centurion made a full confession.