Meat and Potatoes: Ministering to Those People

Ryrie

• (26) “By birth this Gentile woman was a Syrian from the region of Phoenicia.”
• (30) “This miracle was performed from a distance, without any vocal command from Christ.”

Henry

• “Though [Jesus] would not carry a harvest of miraculous cures into those parts, yet, it should seem, he came on purpose to drop a handful, to let fall this one which we have here an account of.”
• The woman “was a Gentile, a Greek, a stranger to the commonwealth of Israel, an alien to the covenant of promise; she was by extraction a Syrophenician, and not in any degree proselyted to the Jewish religion”
• Just as the woman presented herself humbly to Jesus and referred to Him as Lord, “those that would obtain mercy from Christ, must throw themselves at his feet; must refer themselves to him, humble themselves before him, and give up themselves to be ruled by him.”
• “Christ gave poor supplicants leave to be thus free with him; she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.” In other words, she was completely honest and forthright with Him.
• “Note, The greatest blessing we can ask of Christ for our children is, that he would break the power of Satan, that is, the power of sin, in their souls; and particularly, that he would cast forth the unclean spirit, that they may be temples of the Holy Ghost, and he may dwell in them.”
• “Note, Where Christ knows the faith of poor supplicants to be strong, he sometimes delights to try it, and put it to the stretch. But his saying, Let the children first be filled, intimates that there was mercy in reserve for the Gentiles, and not far off; for the Jews began already to be surfeited with the gospel of Christ, and some of them had desired him to depart out of their coasts.”
• The point of the woman's response was not to “[undervalue] the mercy, or making light of it in itself, but [to magnify] the abundance or miraculous cures with which she heard the Jews were feasted, in comparison with which a single cure was but as a crumb.”

Reflecting God

• (24) Tyre was “a Gentile city located in Phoenicia (modern Lebanon), which bordered Galilee to the northwest. A journey of about 30 miles from Capernaum would have brought Jesus to the vicinity of Tyre.”
• (24) “Ever since the feeding of the 5K jesus and his disciples had been, for the most part, skirting the region of Galilee. His purpose was to avoid the opposition in Galilee and to secure opportunity to teach his disciples privately. The regions to which he withdrew were: (1) the northeastern shore of the Sea of Galilee (6:30-53), (2) Phoenicia (7:24-40), (3) the Decapolis (7:31-8:10) and (4) Caesarea Philippi (8:27-9:32).”
• (26) Greek is probably used here as an equivalent to Gentile.
• (26) “At that time Phoenicia belonged administratively to Syria. Mark possibly used the term to distinguish this woman from the Libyan Phoenicians of North Africa.”
• (27) “The Greek says “little dogs,” meaning a pet dog in the home, and Jesus' point was that the gospel was to be given first to Jews. The woman understood Jesus' implication and was willing to settle for 'crumbs.' Jesus rewarded her faith.”
• (28) This is “the only time in this Gospel that Jesus is addressed as 'Lord.' The woman's reply indicates personal faith that is so often associated with Jesus' healing ministry.”