Why did Jesus call a Woman a Dog?
Mark 7.24-30
This article was originally published in French at TPSG.
Do you know the story? A Syro-Phoenician woman comes to Jesus to seek deliverance for her daughter, who is afflicted with an unclean spirit. Jesus' response is disturbing at first reading:
"Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." (v. 27).
If you are like me, you have asked yourself, "Why does Jesus seem to be insulting this woman in this way?" Knowing the character of our Lord, rather than rushing to that conclusion, we need to dig deeper to understand the meaning of this troubling passage.
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The interpretive key is found at the beginning of chapter 7. Jesus is confronted by the Pharisees because his disciples eat without washing their hands. Jesus responds by exposing their hypocrisy as they elevate their traditions above God's commandments.
Then Jesus explains to his disciples, "There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him... What comes out of a person is what defiles him...Thus he declared all foods clean."
Jesus declares something radical to his original audience: the source of a human being's defilement is within him, not outside. It is in his fallen nature and not in the way he washes his hands, nor in his origins. Then Mark, who organizes his Gospel thematically (not chronologically), emphasizes this point to show us how Jesus reinforced his words with actions consistent with his mission.
We see this in three examples of Jesus' ministry among Gentiles: the deliverance of the daughter of the Syro-Phoenician woman (Mk 7:24-30), the healing of a deaf-mute (Mk 7:31-37), and the multiplication of loaves and fish for the 4,000 (Mk 8:1-9) - all Gentiles, considered unclean and defiled by the Jews.
In a parallel passage in Acts 10, Cornelius, a God-fearing centurion, has a vision in which an angel tells him to send for Peter. Then Peter has a vision of a great sheet coming down from heaven, where all sorts of unclean animals are found. When God tells him to eat them, Peter refuses:
"I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.”" (Acts 10:14-15)
Again, we read the word "unclean" or "impure. "This text has the same purpose as Mark 7: to show the recipients that no one is defiled because of what comes from outside, including his ethnic origins. What Jesus says implicitly in Mark 7 he says explicitly in Acts 10:15: "What God has made clean, do not call common."
So, going back to the Syro-Phoenician woman: If Jesus' purpose was not to cast her off, why does He speak to her like that? I propose that there are in fact two reasons. The first is theological: to make it clear that the Good News had to be preached first to those to whom it was promised beforehand (Rom 1:16, Acts 1:7).
Most of Jesus' ministry was focused on the Jews, but God had the salvation of the Gentiles in mind from the beginning (Gen 3:15, Eph 1:4). And from the birth of the nation of Israel, an essential part of the Abrahamic covenant was the promise that the Lord would make Abraham a blessing to all nations (Gen 12:3). This is fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. After His ascension, Jesus gave His disciples the task of spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth.
The second reason for Jesus' response is instructive. First of all for the woman: Jesus wants to put her to the test. He wants her to persevere in her request for his daughter. "How badly do you want it?" Charles Spurgeon describes the scene as follows:
The fact that such a woman chooses to approach a Jewish healer, and even fall at his feet, indicates either despair or a remarkable insight into the broader meaning of Jesus' ministry (and salvation history). His response suggests at least one element of the latter: “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.”
Despite the Lord's response, she is not shaken. She believes and even Jesus Himself cannot make her doubt Him.
One commentator describes the scene as follows: ""The woman is the first person in Mark to hear and understand one of Jesus' parables. The brief parable of the children and the dogs at the table revealed to her the mystery of the kingdom of God. She does what Jesus commands those who want to receive the kingdom and experience the word of God: she enters the parable and allows herself to be drawn into it." »
What a worthy woman! This unnamed woman is part of the history of redemption among pagan women who entered into a covenant relationship with God and his people. Think of Rahab, Tamar, Ruth - all pagan women who appear in Jesus' genealogy (Mt 1:2-5). And far from insulting her, Jesus elevates her through this interaction. He saves her and answers her prayer. In this way she becomes the first fruits of a multitude of pagans who would come to Jesus' feet through faith, including you and me.
Do you know the story? A Syro-Phoenician woman comes to Jesus to seek deliverance for her daughter, who is afflicted with an unclean spirit. Jesus' response is disturbing at first reading:
"Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." (v. 27).
If you are like me, you have asked yourself, "Why does Jesus seem to be insulting this woman in this way?" Knowing the character of our Lord, rather than rushing to that conclusion, we need to dig deeper to understand the meaning of this troubling passage.
xThen Jesus explains to his disciples, "There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him... What comes out of a person is what defiles him...Thus he declared all foods clean."
Jesus declares something radical to his original audience: the source of a human being's defilement is within him, not outside. It is in his fallen nature and not in the way he washes his hands, nor in his origins. Then Mark, who organizes his Gospel thematically (not chronologically), emphasizes this point to show us how Jesus reinforced his words with actions consistent with his mission.
We see this in three examples of Jesus' ministry among Gentiles: the deliverance of the daughter of the Syro-Phoenician woman (Mk 7:24-30), the healing of a deaf-mute (Mk 7:31-37), and the multiplication of loaves and fish for the 4,000 (Mk 8:1-9) - all Gentiles, considered unclean and defiled by the Jews.
In a parallel passage in Acts 10, Cornelius, a God-fearing centurion, has a vision in which an angel tells him to send for Peter. Then Peter has a vision of a great sheet coming down from heaven, where all sorts of unclean animals are found. When God tells him to eat them, Peter refuses:
"I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.”" (Acts 10:14-15)
Again, we read the word "unclean" or "impure. "This text has the same purpose as Mark 7: to show the recipients that no one is defiled because of what comes from outside, including his ethnic origins. What Jesus says implicitly in Mark 7 he says explicitly in Acts 10:15: "What God has made clean, do not call common."
So, going back to the Syro-Phoenician woman: If Jesus' purpose was not to cast her off, why does He speak to her like that? I propose that there are in fact two reasons. The first is theological: to make it clear that the Good News had to be preached first to those to whom it was promised beforehand (Rom 1:16, Acts 1:7).
Most of Jesus' ministry was focused on the Jews, but God had the salvation of the Gentiles in mind from the beginning (Gen 3:15, Eph 1:4). And from the birth of the nation of Israel, an essential part of the Abrahamic covenant was the promise that the Lord would make Abraham a blessing to all nations (Gen 12:3). This is fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. After His ascension, Jesus gave His disciples the task of spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth.
The second reason for Jesus' response is instructive. First of all for the woman: Jesus wants to put her to the test. He wants her to persevere in her request for his daughter. "How badly do you want it?" Charles Spurgeon describes the scene as follows:
The Lord Jesus was charmed with the fair jewel of this
woman's faith and watching it and delighting in it, He resolved to turn it
round and set it in other lights, that the various facets of this priceless
diamond might, each one, flash its brilliance and delight His soul! Therefore
He tried her faith by His silence and by His discouraging replies, that He
might see its strength. But He was, all the while, delighting in it and
secretly sustaining it. And when He had sufficiently tried it, He brought it
forth as gold, and set His own royal mark upon it in these memorable words,
"O woman, great is your faith; be it unto you even as you will."
Despite the Lord's response, she is not shaken. She believes and even Jesus Himself cannot make her doubt Him.
One commentator describes the scene as follows: ""The woman is the first person in Mark to hear and understand one of Jesus' parables. The brief parable of the children and the dogs at the table revealed to her the mystery of the kingdom of God. She does what Jesus commands those who want to receive the kingdom and experience the word of God: she enters the parable and allows herself to be drawn into it." »
What a worthy woman! This unnamed woman is part of the history of redemption among pagan women who entered into a covenant relationship with God and his people. Think of Rahab, Tamar, Ruth - all pagan women who appear in Jesus' genealogy (Mt 1:2-5). And far from insulting her, Jesus elevates her through this interaction. He saves her and answers her prayer. In this way she becomes the first fruits of a multitude of pagans who would come to Jesus' feet through faith, including you and me.
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