*This is the sixth post of twelve in my #12saints12days series. Support The ☧ost by becoming a subscriber today!
Acts 10 introduces Cornelius and his family, the first gentiles baptized into the Church after circumcision requirement was …cut. That’s a big deal, and size matters!
Soldier or veteran?
Right off the bat, we know Cornelius is “a centurion of the Italian Cohort, as it was called.” The Greek is ambiguous as to the present or past tense; was it called the Italian Cohort at that time, or at some point in the past? By extension, is Cornelius a soldier in this cohort, or was he? Because there is an important distinction between soldier and veteran (and Soldier and Veteran, for that matter).
If Cornelius was still serving as a soldier, then it was probably the first of two cohorts of Roman voluntariorum (volunteers), low-status citizens paid like legionarii but treated like auxilia. The second cohort was stationed in Judea and made up of a mix of velones and Syrian recruits. As “a centurion” (rather than ‘the’ centurion,’ as with Synoptic Longinus), Cornelius would have been a “top” - one of five primi ordines leading a single century of about 100 men, the equivalent of a First Sergeant.
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