“There was a certain man in Cesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band,”
At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment.—Cornelius, a Roman military officer stationed at the Mediterranean port of Caesarea, represents both political power and the Gentile world. The 'Italian Regiment' (speira Italike) was an auxiliary cohort composed of Italian volunteers. His position makes him simultaneously powerful and, from Jewish perspective, constitutionally unclean—a pagan overseer of pagan soldiers. His narrative prominence signals the gospel's next great boundary-crossing.
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