Mark 15:39

“And when the centurion, which stood over against him, etc..] To watch him, that nobody released him, and that he did not come down from the cross himself; saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost; that he cried with so loud and strong a voice, and the next moment expired: he said, truly this man was the Son of God; and so said the rest of the soldiers that were with them, as appears from (<402754>Matthew 27:54).”

“15:39 the Roman officer: Literally the centurion. The Latin word centurion refers to an officer in charge of 100 men. • Jesus as the Son of God was announced by God (1:11; 9:7), by demons (1:24, 34; 3:11; 5:7), by Mark (1:1), by Jesus himself (12:6; 13:32; 14:61-62), and now by a Gentile officer.”

“the centurion: The centurion was a military captain, and commander of a century, or 100 men. In order to have a proper notion of his office, it may be desirable to explain the construction and array of the Roman legion. Each legion was divided into ten cohorts, each cohort into three maniples, and each maniple into two centuries; so that there were thirty maniples, and sixty centuries in a legion, which, if the century had always, as the word imports, consisted of 100 soldiers, would have formed a combined phalanx of 6,000 men. The number in a legion, however, varied at different periods; in the time of Polybius it was 4,200. The order of battle was that of three lines; the hastati, or…”