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Syrophanician Woman

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

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SYROPHŒNICIAN WOMAN.—So designated in Mark 7:26.* [Note: The readings are various. אAKL and other MSS have Συροφοινίκισσα; EFGH, etc., Σύρα Φοεγίκισσα. For the Συροφοίνισσα of the TR there is little authority.] She is described further (1) in the same passage as a Greek (Ἑλληνίς), i.e., according to Heb. usage, one who spoke Greek as her ordinary language;† [Note: The word Ελλην is, indeed, often used in the NT in a yet wider sense, as the equivalent of Gentile (Acts 19:10, Romans 1:16; Romans 2:9.] and (2) in Matthew 15:22 as a Canaanite (Χαναναία), equivalent here to Phœnician, in conformity with the LXX Septuagint , which renders Canaan by φοινίκη. The woman was apparently a Greek as regards language and culture, a Phoenician by descent, and a Syrian by provincial connexion.* [Note: In the reign of Hadrian, Syria was subdivided into (1) Syria proper, (2) Syro-Phœnicia, (3) Syria-Palestinia (Lucian, de Con. Deor. 4). The political division, then officially made, probably followed an already existing popular nomenclature, so that a Syrophœnician may mean simply a Syrian resident in Phœnicia proper (Hastings’ DB iv. 652). There is no distinct authority for the possible interpretation, half-Syrian, half-Phœnician; although Juv. (viii. 159) is regarded by some as such, and there is an analogy in the use of Libyphœnix to denote a mongrel person (Livy, xxi. 22).] Her name is mentioned in the Clementine Homilies (ii. 19, iii. 73) as Justa, and that of her daughter as Bernice.

1. The woman’s approach to Christ on her daughter’s behalf is remarkable, for (1) Jesus belonged to a race which hated or despised her countrymen, and were hated and despised by them. (2) He had healed none of her people, and had come into her district not for ministry, but for retirement and rest. (3) She had evidently received no encouragement from the disciples. Yet she comes to Him and addresses Him not as a general philanthropist, but as Son of David. She had heard about Christ, probably, from some of ‘those about Tyre and Sidon’ who had waited early on His ministry before the appointment of the Twelve (Mark 3:8). Her national prejudice against Jesus and a Jewish Messiah had been broken down, her faith in His healing and exorcizing power was complete. The incentive to her faith and appeal is maternal love along with sore need. She is in great trouble, and one who has helped others in trial is at hand. She loves her stricken daughter, and warm affection surmounts all barriers.

2. Still more remarkable is our Lord’s triple apparent repulse. (1) His silence at first and seeming indifference: ‘He answered her never a word’ (Matthew 15:23). (2) His apparent refusal on account of lack of authority: ‘I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’ (3) His seemingly scornful reproach: ‘It is not meet to take the children’s bread and to cast it to the dogs’ (Matthew 15:26, Mark 7:27). For this repeated repulse, however, there was a triple reason. (1) Consideration for Jews. It was part of God’s providential plan to use the Jews for the education and conversion of the world; therefore they must not be needlessly and prematurely alienated from a Christ who was to be a Messiah equally for Jews and for Gentiles. The alienation was destined to come eventually for the nation as a whole, but it must not be hastened and intensified through any sudden process; the extension of the Kingdom must be shown to be natural and inevitable—the proper recompense of a faith in Jehovah which constituted Gentiles genuine sons and daughters of Abraham. (2) Education of disciples who shared more or less in the national prejudice and exclusiveness. The Twelve were to become Apostles to the world, and Christ wished their eventual mission not to be merely imposed by authority, but to be the out-come of inward prompting. Accordingly He excites (a) their pity, so as to cause them to become, even if selfishly, intercessors for the woman;† [Note: Matthew 15:23-24, where Christ’s reply indicates that He understood the disciples to mean, ‘Send her away with her entreaty granted.’] and (b) their admiration, by the manifestation in her of a faith which exceeded that of their own countrymen. (3) Development of the woman’s faith and love. He who ‘knew what was in man’ saw the strength of the Syrophœnician’s faith, and He desired to perfect it (James 1:3) through such trials as, to His discerning insight, she appeared able to bear. He sought to deepen within her that humility which is the condition of exaltation, and to render yet warmer that motherly love which had opened her eyes to love Divine. Doubtless, had her faith been less strong, her humility less deep, her love less self-forgetful, He would have dealt more tenderly with her, so as not to ‘break the bruised reed’; but these qualities being already well developed, He braced her character with the cold yet wholesome wind of seeming discouragement.

3. The woman’s triumph and reward.—Over Christ’s silent apathy, as it appeared (Matthew 15:22), she triumphs with renewed supplication; over His seemingly narrow refusal of ministry to an alien she triumphs with lowly worship of Him as Son of David,—such worship as was withheld by His own countrymen, as a whole; His outwardly harsh description of her as a heathen dog, to whom it was not meet to give the children’s bread, she overcomes with the apt rejoinder that the little dogs (κυνάρια) under the table eat of the children’s crumbs.* [Note: Christ Himself had suggested this response by His use of the diminutive κυναρίοις, which was applicable not to the roaming dogs of a city, but to the pet dogs of a home.] Her victory is signal. Her faith, like that of the centurion in Matthew 8, is attested as great (Matthew 15:28), and the more than willing surrender of Christ is graciously ascribed by Him to herself. ‘For this saying go thy way’ (Mark 7:29). The reward is complete and immediate: ‘Be it unto thee even as thou wilt’; ‘her daughter was made whole from that very hour’ (Matthew 15:28).

4. The main lessons of this incident are obvious. (1) What the Christian preacher or teacher is tempted to regard as the least promising soil—individuals or communities outside the Church’s pale—is sometimes that from which the richest harvest is reaped. (2) What men most fear in their life’s experience—suffering, adversity, trouble—often serves as a straight path to God, often reveals itself as a husk of evil enclosing and concealing a kernel of spiritual blessing. While sorrow does not always sanctify, but sometimes breeds moroseness or scepticism, still it is Divinely fitted to move us to go to Him who can sympathize and relieve. (3) Warm love towards those near and dear to us, although sometimes leading the heart away from the Creator to idolatry of the creature, is intended and fitted to open the eyes of the soul to the Fatherly mercy or God, to the brotherly sympathy and saving grace of Christ. Love within us discerns, believes in, realizes love outside of us in God, in Christ, and in fellow-men. (4) What men dislike most in a request is among the things that please God best—importunity. This lesson taught us by the record of the miracle is also impressed on us by two of Christ’s parables—those of the Midnight Guest (Luke 11:5) and of the Importunate Widow (Luke 18:1). It is the same lesson that was inculcated long before by the suggestive story of Jacob’s wrestling, when the patriarch cried, ‘I will not let thee go, except thou bless me’ (Genesis 32:26).

Literature.—Trench, Miracles, pp. 359–369; E. P. Gould, ‘St. Mark’ in ICC [Note: CC International Critical Commentary.] pp. 133–137; A. B. Bruce, ‘Synoptic Gospels’ in; E. P. Gould, ‘St. Mark’ in ICC [Note: CC International Critical Commentary.] pp. 133–137; A. B. Bruce, ‘Synoptic Gospels’ in EGT [Note: GT Expositor’s Greek Testanent.] p. 390 f.; Chadwick, ‘Gospel of St. Mark’ in Expositor’s Bible, pp. 195–200; Luckock, Footprints of the Son of Man, pp. 156–161; Sam. [Note: Samaritan.] Rutherford, Trial and Triumph of Faith (Twenty-seven sermons on the Syrophœnician Woman); Ker, Serm. ii. 200; Lynch, Serm. for my Curates, 317; Bruce, Kingdom of God, 103, Galilean Gosp. 154; ExpT [Note: xpT Expository Times.] iv. [1892] 80, xii. [1901] 319; Dale in Expositor, v. v. [1897] 365.

Henry Cowan.