Evidence of the Existence of Godliness

There is a certain puzzle in the varying Synoptic Gospel accounts of the centurion who witnessed Jesus' death.  Mark has:

"And 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 15:39, KJV).

Translations differ about the above passage from Mark, but one element is definite: the passage's clear depiction of the centurion as being in the immediate vicinity of Jesus.

Compare this to the analogous passage in Luke:

"Now when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous man" (Luke 23:47).

This above passage from Luke follows immediately after the account of Jesus' death, but its description of the centurion as observing the events is more general.  The centurion is not described as "over against" Jesus.

In Matthew, the centurion is shown as being removed even farther from the immediacy and the vicinity of Jesus' death, at least insofar as the centurion is not nailed rhetorically into the space of Jesus' passing.  Matthew reads:

"Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God" (Matthew 27:54).

To recapitulate: One might wonder if the anatomy of religious belief is being revealed in the varying Gospels' accounts of the centurion.  In Mark, the centurion witnesses Jesus' death first-hand and in close proximity.  We do not know what about Jesus' death might have been observed at such close quarters, and might have been observed in no other way.  It is only our conceit that could induce us to say that all the centurion saw was a man dying, and dying in a rather abbreviated way for a victim of crucifixion.

We do not know what the centurion saw, just as we do not know what was seen by the Good Thief of "remember me when you come into your kingdom" fame.  The story in Mark says that, in observing Jesus' death at close hand, the centurion concluded that Jesus was "the Son of God."

The story in Luke is somewhat more withdrawn, and comports more with what the centurion, or anyone else, might be expected to say at such a distance: "Now when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous man."  No longer in a position to observe Jesus' death close-up (and as the ensuing moments were building up) the centurion--it is reasonable to surmise--fell back on the more general and defensible tack: that Jesus died a remarkable death, a death that memorialized Jesus' innocence and heroic acceptance of his fate.

Only later--as described in Matthew, do we see the coalescing of religious belief in the communal and mutually-reinforcing recollections of a group:

"Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God" (Matthew 27:54).

If there is a puzzle in the varying Synoptic Gospel accounts of the centurion's words, it is no more daunting than the puzzle that lies behind anyone's religious belief.  We believe in a God who is good, and we take the existence of goodness as evidence of the existence of godliness, and proceed apace to pronounce on the existence of God.