Michael Angelo Immenraet - Jesus and the Woman of Canaan

The Exorcism of the Syrophoenician woman's daughter is one of the

miracles of Jesus in the Gospels The miracles of Jesus are miraculous deeds attributed to Jesus in Christian and Islamic texts. The majority are faith healings, exorcisms, resurrections, and control over nature. In the Synoptic Gospels (Mark, Matthew, and Luke), Jesus r ...

and is recounted in the Gospel of Mark in Chapter 7 () and in the

Gospel of Matthew The Gospel of Matthew), or simply Matthew. It is most commonly abbreviated as "Matt." is the first book of the New Testament of the Bible and one of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells how Israel's Messiah, Jesus, comes to his people and form ...

in Chapter 15 (). In Matthew, the story is recounted as the healing of a

Caananite Canaan (; Phoenician language, Phoenician: 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍 – ; he, כְּנַעַן – , in pausa – ; grc-bib, Χανααν – ;The current scholarly edition of the Septuagint, Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, c ...

woman's daughter.''Jesus the miracle worker: a historical & theological study'' by Graham H. Twelftree 1999 pages 133-134 According to both accounts, Jesus

exorcised Exorcism () is the religious or spiritual practice of evicting demons, jinns, or other malevolent spiritual entities from a person, or an area, that is believed to be possessed. Depending on the spiritual beliefs of the exorcist, this may be ...

the woman's daughter whilst travelling in the region of Tyre and

Sidon Sidon ( ; he, צִידוֹן, ''Ṣīḏōn'') known locally as Sayda or Saida ( ar, صيدا ''Ṣaydā''), is the third-largest city in Lebanon. It is located in the South Governorate, of which it is the capital, on the Mediterranean coast. ...

, on account of the

faith Faith, derived from Latin ''fides'' and Old French ''feid'', is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or In the context of religion, one can define faith as " belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion". Religious people ofte ...

shown by the woman.

Passage

The relevant passage in Matthew 15:22-28 reads as follows: A Canaanite woman from that region came to Jesus, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly." Folio 164r - The Canaanite Woman

Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us." :He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel". The woman came and knelt before him. "Lord, help me!" she said. :He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs". "Yes Lord," she said. "But even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table." Then Jesus said to her: :"Woman, you have great faith! Your daughter is healed." And her daughter was healed from that very hour. Many English translations of the Gospels state that Jesus was in the region of Tyre and Sidon and had ''withdrawn'' from Galilee where he had entered in discussion with the Pharisees over their interpretation of the Jewish law. The Geneva Bible and the

King James Version The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an Bible translations into English, English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and publis ...

suggest that the visit was to the coast (i.e. the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...

), but the

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges is a biblical commentary set published in parts by Cambridge University Press from 1882 onwards. Anglican bishop John Perowne was the general editor. The first section published was written by theologi ...

argues that Jesus went to "the neighbourhood, rdistrict, not the sea-shore, as might be thought". This episode is, according to Graham H. Twelftree, an example of how Jesus emphasizes the value of faith, as also shown in the

Healing the Centurion's servant Healing the centurion's servant is one of the miracles performed by Jesus of Nazareth as related in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke (both part of the Christian biblical canon). The story is not recounted in the Gospels of either John ...

episode.

Syrophoenician woman

The woman described in the miracle, the Syrophoenician woman (; Συροφοινίκισσα, ''Syrophoinikissa'') is also called a "Canaanite" (; Χαναναία, ''Chananaia'') and is an unidentified

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...

woman from the region of Tyre and

. "The woman is ... described as Syrophoenician by race. It is unclear whether Mark seeks to distinguish between a

Phoenicia Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...

n from Syria and one from northern Africa or between someone living in the coastal area of Syria and someone living in the central part." Her other notable characteristic is her non-Jewish status: the Gospel of Mark adds that she is a

Gentile Gentile () is a word that usually means "someone who is not a Jew". Other groups that claim Israelite heritage, notably Mormons, sometimes use the term ''gentile'' to describe outsiders. More rarely, the term is generally used as a synonym fo ...

(Ελληνις, ''Hellēnis'', literally

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

). The third century pseudo-Clementine homily refers to her name as ''Justa'' and her daughter's name as ''Berenice''. Also at 3.73 and 4.1.

Commentary

Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known wit ...

comments on this passage on his homily on the sinful soul saying,

Five things are noted of this woman of
Canaan Canaan (; Phoenician: 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍 – ; he, כְּנַעַן – , in pausa – ; grc-bib, Χανααν – ;The current scholarly edition of the Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus T ...
which availed for the liberation of this demoniac. (1) Humility: “ Yet the dogs eat.” (2) Her patience, since she patiently endured the seeming reproaches of Our Lord. (3) Her prayer, “ Have mercy on me, O Lord.” (4) Her perseverance : she did not cease asking till she obtained what she desired. (5) Her faith: “O woman, great is thy faith.” If we had had these five qualities we should be delivered from every devil, that is, from all sin; which may Christ grant us to be. Amen.

References

External links

{{New Testament people Exorcisms of Jesus Women in the New Testament Gospel of Matthew Gospel of Mark Tyre, Lebanon History of Sidon Phoenicians in the New Testament

Passage

Syrophoenician woman

Commentary

See also

References

Further reading

External links