Mark 7:24-37 The Syrophoenician Woman

If Jesus comes to our community, who will be the "unclean" that he would want to care for?

24  Ἐκεῖθεν δὲ ἀναστὰς ἀπῆλθεν εἰς τὰ ὅρια Τύρου. Καὶ εἰσελθὼν εἰς οἰκίαν οὐδένα ἤθελεν γνῶναι, καὶ οὐκ ἠδυνήθη λαθεῖν·
24  Jesus got up and went away from there to the region of Tyre. And when He had entered a house, He wanted no one to know of it; yet He could not escape notice.
B1 Tyre. Jesus travels to Hellenistic Gentile region as he foresees a later mission to the Gentiles through his disciples (7.27; 13.10; 14.9)

B2 Elijah had also aided a non-Jewish woman in this area (1 Ki. 17.8, 17-24). 

25  ἀλλ᾽ εὐθὺς ἀκούσασα γυνὴ περὶ αὐτοῦ, ἧς εἶχεν τὸ θυγάτριον αὐτῆς πνεῦμα ἀκάθαρτον, ἐλθοῦσα προσέπεσεν πρὸς τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ·
25  But after hearing of Him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately came and fell at His feet.

26  ἡ δὲ γυνὴ ἦν Ἑλληνίς, Συροφοινίκισσα τῷ γένει· καὶ ἠρώτα αὐτὸν ἵνα τὸ δαιμόνιον ἐκβάλῃ ἐκ τῆς θυγατρὸς αὐτῆς.
26  Now the woman was a Gentile, of the Syrophoenician race. And she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.
B1 Syrophoenician indicates that she was a native of Phoenicia, which included Tyre and Sidon. 

27  καὶ ἔλεγεν αὐτῇ· ἄφες πρῶτον χορτασθῆναι τὰ τέκνα, οὐ γάρ ἐστιν καλὸν λαβεῖν τὸν ἄρτον τῶν τέκνων καὶ τοῖς κυναρίοις βαλεῖν.
27  And He was saying to her, "Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs."
B1 Bread=his message; children = Jewish people; dogs = Gentiles. Did Jesus speak as he only merely wanted to test the woman's faith?

A1 dogs. “lap dogs, house dogs,” as opposed to dogs on the street. It originally referred to puppies or little dogs, then to house pets. In some Hellenistic uses κυνάριον (kunarion) simply means “dog.” 
The term dogs does not refer to wild dogs (scavenging animals roaming around the countryside) in this context, but to small dogs taken in as house pets. It is thus not a derogatory term per se, but is instead intended by Jesus to indicate the privileged position of the Jews (especially his disciples) as the initial recipients of Jesus’ ministry. The woman’s response of faith and her willingness to accept whatever Jesus would offer pleased him to such an extent that he granted her request. This is the only miracle mentioned in Mark that Jesus performed at a distance without ever having seen the afflicted person, or issuing some sort of audible command.

C1 dogs. Jesus was in the mist of teaching his disciples. During a meal, one does not stop to feed the house pets, the little dogs.
 
D1 dogs. Because of the polytheistic idoltry of the Gentiles, Jews likened them to notoriously impure scavenging street "dogs." But Jesus changes the metaphor by artfully transforming the wild street dogs into trusted domestic pets gathered around the family table.

E1 Though in Gentile territory, Jesus maintains the temporal priority of Israel in the divine plan of salvation, as Paul does later (Rom. 1.16; 2.10; Acts 1.8; 13.46-47 )

28  ἡ δὲ ἀπεκρίθη καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ· κύριε· καὶ τὰ κυνάρια ὑποκάτω τῆς τραπέζης ἐσθίουσιν ἀπὸ τῶν ψιχίων τῶν παιδίων.
28  But she answered and said to Him, "Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children's crumbs."
B1 Yes, Lord. The woman's response to Jesus is both humble and persistent. Perhaps she understands that God called Israel first for a particular purpose (cf. Ex. 4.22). n

29  καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῇ· διὰ τοῦτον τὸν λόγον ὕπαγε, ἐξελήλυθεν ἐκ τῆς θυγατρός σου τὸ δαιμόνιον.
29  And He said to her, "Because of this answer go; the demon has gone out of your daughter."
B1 Because of this answer. Jesus honors the woman's simple faith, so that upon reaching home, she finds that the demon is gone out of her daughter. 

30  καὶ ἀπελθοῦσα εἰς τὸν οἶκον αὐτῆς εὗρεν τὸ παιδίον βεβλημένον ἐπὶ τὴν κλίνην καὶ τὸ δαιμόνιον ἐξεληλυθός.
30  And going back to her home, she found the child lying on the bed, the demon having left.
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How have we changed to understand who Jesus in the past years?

31  Καὶ πάλιν ἐξελθὼν ἐκ τῶν ὁρίων Τύρου ἦλθεν διὰ Σιδῶνος εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν τῆς Γαλιλαίας ἀνὰ μέσον τῶν ὁρίων Δεκαπόλεως.
31  Again He went out from the region of Tyre, and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within the region of Decapolis.
A1 Decapolis refers to a league of towns (originally consisting of ten; the Greek name literally means “ten towns”) whose region lay across the Jordan River.

B1 Jesus preached far and wide to Galilean and Judean Jews, as well as to the remnant people of Israel who by this time had resettled in the Hellenistic regions of Tyre, Sidon, and the Decapolis. 

32  Καὶ φέρουσιν αὐτῷ κωφὸν καὶ μογιλάλον καὶ παρακαλοῦσιν αὐτὸν ἵνα ἐπιθῇ αὐτῷ τὴν χεῖρα.
32  They brought to Him one who was deaf and spoke with difficulty, and they implored Him to lay His hand on him.

33  καὶ ἀπολαβόμενος αὐτὸν ἀπὸ τοῦ ὄχλου κατ᾽ ἰδίαν ἔβαλεν τοὺς δακτύλους αὐτοῦ εἰς τὰ ὦτα αὐτοῦ καὶ πτύσας ἥψατο τῆς γλώσσης αὐτοῦ,
33  Jesus took him aside from the crowd, by himself, and put His fingers into his ears, and after spitting, He touched his tongue with the saliva;
A1 After spitting, he touched his tongue. It was not uncommon in Judaism of the day to associate curative powers with a person’s saliva. The scene as a whole reflects Jesus’ willingness to get close to people and have physical contact with them where appropriate. See W. L. Lane, Mark (NICNT), 267 n. 78.

34  καὶ ἀναβλέψας εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν ἐστέναξεν καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ· Εφφαθα, ὅ ἐστιν διανοίχθητι.
34  and looking up to heaven with a deep sigh, He said to him, "Ephphatha!" that is, "Be opened!"
A1 Be opened!The author’s parenthetical note gives the meaning of the Aramaic word Ephphatha.

B1 with a deep sigh. Jesus sighed over the hard-heartedness (cf. 8.12, 17; 9.19) and physical weaknesses that had arisen on account of mankind's fall (Gen. 3). 

35  καὶ [εὐθέως] ἠνοίγησαν αὐτοῦ αἱ ἀκοαί, καὶ ἐλύθη ὁ δεσμὸς τῆς γλώσσης αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐλάλει ὀρθῶς.
35  And his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was removed, and he began speaking plainly.

36  καὶ διεστείλατο αὐτοῖς ἵνα μηδενὶ λέγωσιν· ὅσον δὲ αὐτοῖς διεστέλλετο, αὐτοὶ μᾶλλον περισσότερον ἐκήρυσσον.
36  And He gave them orders not to tell anyone; but the more He ordered them, the more widely they continued to proclaim it.

37  καὶ ὑπερπερισσῶς ἐξεπλήσσοντο λέγοντες· καλῶς πάντα πεποίηκεν, καὶ τοὺς κωφοὺς ποιεῖ ἀκούειν καὶ [τοὺς] ἀλάλους λαλεῖν.
37  They were utterly astonished, saying, "He has done all things well; He makes even the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."
B1 astonished. The people wonder whether Jesus is the Messiah (Isa. 35.5-6). They are not expecting a suffering Messiah but rather political liberator along the lines of the earlier Maccabean uprising (166-160 B.C.).