The Apostolic Age · AD 4–70
The Centurion at the Cross
fl. AD 30 (death unrecorded) · Roman officer at the crucifixion · Jerusalem
The Apostolic Age
Who The Centurion at the Cross was
The Roman officer commanding the execution detail at Golgotha, who at Jesus’s death confessed, by Mark’s account, “Truly this man was the Son of God.” He is the first Gentile in the Gospel narrative to say so, and the evangelists preserve him namelessly — an anonymous voice the early church treasured as the beginning of the Gentile confession.
Common questions
When was The Centurion at active?
The Centurion at the Cross is dated fl. AD 30 (death unrecorded) in the archive, which places The Centurion at in the Apostolic Age (AD 4–70).
Which early sources mention The Centurion at?
The Centurion at the Cross is named in 3 primary-source passages catalogued here, drawn from Matthew the Evangelist, Mark and The Pilate cycle. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Where was The Centurion at from?
The archive associates The Centurion at the Cross with Jerusalem.
Who were The Centurion at’s contemporaries?
The archive links The Centurion at the Cross to 5 other figures, including Stephen the Protomartyr, Cornelius the Centurion, Dismas (the Penitent Thief) and Pontius Pilate. Each connection is drawn from a source that places them together, not from inference.
Scripture record
Primary-source mentions (3)
Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Mark 15:39
c. AD 70And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.Mark · read ↗
Acts of Pilate XVI (he receives the name Longinus)
c. AD 350Names proposed by later tradition
Longinus
The name given him in the Acts of Pilate (4th c.) and the whole later hagiographic tradition, East and West.
Petronius
The name assigned to the centurion of the guard in the apocryphal Gospel of Peter (2nd c.).
Connected in the archive
People
- Stephen the Protomartyr
- Cornelius the Centurion
- Dismas (the Penitent Thief)
- Pontius Pilate
- Gaianus, also called Porphyrius
Events in this lifetime
Place
Places served
The one place the sources put The Centurion at.