Christ's Followers from All Regions and All Times

Mat 8:7 [To the centurion about his palsied servant] I will come and heal him.
Mat 8:10 [After the centurion says he isn't worthy] Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.
Mat 8:11 And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.

The term translated as "heal" is therapeuo, which means "to provide service," and "to be an attendant." It also means "to do service for the gods," "to pay court to," "to consult," and "to attend to a person." A related word, the noun, therapeia, means "service," "medical treatment," and "the care of aninals." It is the source of the English word "therapy." So, when Christ offer to go to see the servant, he offers to attend to him. He doesn't promise a cure as you might think from the English translation.

In the second verse, the term translated as "found" is heurisko, which we have discussed before and means "to come upon," "to meet with," "to acquire," and "discover." "Faith" is pistis, which means "the conviction of the truth of anything," "confidence," "belief," and, as a character trait, "faithfulness."

"Come" is heko, which means "to arrive," and, as a metaphor, to be a follower, but it does have the specific sense in Greek of coming to a table. The term translated as "east" is anatole, which means literally, the rising of the sun or stars above the horizon. The term translated as "west" is dusme, which means "the setting." Anaklino is the term translated as "sit down," but it means "to lean one thing upon another," "to recline," or "to lean back." Of course, at the time, people reclined to eat, but the sense of leaning upon the patriarchs is also part of the sense of the phrase.

I am especially intrigued by the use of anatole and dusme, because they refer not only to the regions where the rising and setting take place, but they also suggest people in acendence and in deline and the ages past and future as in the dawn and dusk of time.