The Jesus’ stories are quite remarkable and also the way they are recorded often entice us to think beyond the story itself. The interaction with the ‘Syrophoenician’ woman is one such story (Mk. 7:24-30). In Mark she is identified (correctly) as ‘a gentile, of Syrophoenician origin’, but Matthew does a little sidestep:
Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed from that moment (Matt. 15:21-28).
A ‘Canannite woman’ – totally anachronistic and so we can say inaccurate. We sometimes might do something similar such as ‘a Viking from Sweden’. Anachronistic but the use of the term is to pull something of the history (or myth) and call for the person we are talking to to allow their imagination to apply something of the history to the person we are describing. The Canaanites – Matthew is pulling on the OT story where the Canaanites are not simply to be avoided but to be exterminated, and tellingly in this story, their children also!
[A]nd when the Lord your God gives them over to you and you defeat them, then you must utterly destroy them. Make no covenant with them and show them no mercy. Do not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for that would turn away your children from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly (Deut. 7:2-4).
Then they devoted to destruction by the edge of the sword all in the city, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys (Jos. 6:21).
Genocide in our language. Love the Bible for the texts as are can cause all kinds of problems, and the wriggling that is done to get round what the text says, and claims to be instruction from God is deeply problematic. Along comes Jesus… A Canaanite with a child. This is more than the redemption of a (Deuterononist) text but the ‘redemption’ of God. Already there is a shift, and a further shift comes in the narrative for one way (the best and clearest way) is to read that a change takes place in Jesus’ understanding as the woman pushes him. The interaction pushes his understanding to follow his heart, and even to go so far as to stretch what the time-line meant. For sure he was sent to the ‘lost sheep of the house of Israel’ (very clear in Matthew – ‘he will save his people from their sins’), which I think indicates a two-stage movement: first one to restore Israel (don’t make an assumption as to what I mean by that!) so that the Gentile world can be totally included… so maybe Jesus would have allowed for the hope of the healing of the daughter at a later stage, but…
She pulls by faith so that even such a time line is adjusted. Matthew writes anachronistically. Jesus acts out of time due to the woman with great faith.
The text challenges the OT ‘wipe them out’ narrative; it reveals Jesus as the great Teacher because he was the great Learner; it shows that someone on the margins can align a future time to the present.
Brilliant Martin so helpful! Jesus, the radical not always being nice and polite but always good and pushing boundaries etc. Not afraid to upset the powers that be either especially the religious ones.
Love this (more accurate) interpretation of the underlying meaning of this story, Martin. And He redeemed God! Or rather, our image of God which He, of course, knew well was not the Father He intimately knew(!) Thank you.
Pretty radical stuff Martin. Really interesting to make the connections both backwards and forwards. It does challenge those of us who often sit on the sidelines and bemoan the fate of others but have no action to engage in. Perhaps we need our imaginations challenged too.
Thanks for the comments. I kinda enjoyed this post -and am aware as to how much further it could be taken. All critiques of Scripture – and of ‘God’ – is done through there is no other ‘God’ other than the Christlike God.