Daniel Marguerat in The First Christian Historian highlights a unifying mechanism within narratives called a “narrative chain” (p. 52 ff). He points out the chain of centurions in Luke-Acts and comments on their significance.
- centurion of Capernaum (Luke 7:1-10)
- centurion that confesses faith at Jesus’ crucifixion (Luke 23:47)
- centurion named Cornelius who believes (Acts 10-11; 15:7-11)
Marguerat notes that these centurions all have exemplary faith that is underlined in the text (see Luke 7:9b; 23:47; Acts 10:2). He writes, “The narrator has linked these three soldiers together by the common theme of the astonishing grace accorded to faith” (53).
For its significance on the level of narrative, he writes:
(a) it creates the continuity between the meeting of Peter and Cornelius and an action of Jesus
(b) it legitimizes the favour of God towards Cornelius by the positive construction of the character of the ‘centurion’
(c) it prepares for the shock of the opening up of salvation to the Gentiles
