The healing of the Syrophoenician woman’s daughter is a perplexing passage in the Gospel of Mark. On the surface, it is a story in which a Gentile woman approaches Jesus and asks him to heal her possessed daughter. Jesus, of course, does so, but not without convincing– Jesus’ initial response is hostile. At first glance, the passage portrays Jesus as a cold, discompassionate man. A more critical look at the passage can offer an interpretation that values women as teachers and conveys a changing worldview within first century Jewish Christian circles. In this paper I suggest that Mark 7:24-30 can be interpreted as a feminist uplifting of women as teachers. The importance of the feminine in Mark’s gospel becomes apparent when we consider the author’s context. It is important to consider how Mark’s social location influences his telling of the Jesus narrative. His telling of the story of the Syrophoenician woman differs from Matthew’s telling of the story. In considering the author’s context, we will see that his inclusion of women in the text is suggestive of women’s actual roles within the community. After considering how this background information can help us understand Mark’s Gospel, we will exegete the passage and discern what meaning it can have for our current context.
The Context of the Gospel of Mark
The Gospel of Mark, while long believed to have been written by John Mark, is more likely to have been written by an anonymous Christian for an an audience that included both Jewish and Gentile Christians in Rome.(1) His audience was likely lower-class, as is evidenced by the author’s use of informal Greek prose that was the norm in the area at the time.(2) The author wrote the Gospel between 65 and 70 AD, close to the time of the razing of the temple; it is thus often referred to as a “war time” Gospel that reflects the tensions and instability facing Mark’s community.(3) As the earliest extant Gospel text, it provides an interesting look at what an early Christian community may have believed about the figure of Jesus. The text is less Christologically developed than the other Gospels and lacks a birth narrative and resurrection. Written in the style of a Greco-Roman biography, it tells the story of the ministry and death of Jesus of Nazareth, a figure whom the author claims is the messiah, although he is clear that most did not perceive that reality until after Jesus’ death.(4) The story of the Syrophoenician woman thus occurs at a point when the characters in the story do not yet understand that Jesus is the messiah.
Mark’s social context and his intended audience are important to our consideration of the text.(5) The material within the Gospel conveys a familiarity with Jewish customs and a tendency to explain them that suggests Mark’s community consisted predominantly, but not exclusively, of Gentile Christians.(6) The words placed in Jesus’ mouth in Mark 7:24-30 suggest a tension in that reality; his initial refusal to help the Syrophoenician woman appears to be rooted in ethnic divisions. While Mark’s community may have been somewhat diverse, Jesus is portrayed clearly as a Jew throughout the text. Despite his confrontations with religious authorities, the author continually parallels Jesus with Jewish figures, positions him in the Temple, and focuses on Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem.(7) However, Jesus dines with sinners, performs miracles on the Sabbath, and is repeatedly challenged by the Pharisees.(8) While this is the case, Jesus is misunderstood by nearly every character in the text, including his own closest followers. This tension with Jewish leadership likely reflects a growing tension in Mark’s community with Pharisaic Judaism, since the Pharisees seem to have gained influence only after Jesus’ death.(9) These themes of contention with authority may represent the turbulence and impending schism facing the author’s community at the time. The hostility in Jerusalem was peaking, tensions between Jewish authorities and Christians may have been nearing an ugly split, and Christians were likely facing persecution and martyrdom.(10) It is within this turbulence that the author of Mark writes.
Parallels and Differences with The Gospel of Matthew
Outside of Mark, the story of the Syrophoenician woman appears in Gospel of Matthew. Matthew calls her a Canaanite woman, likely because Matthew wrote for a Jewish audience who would be familiar with biblical stories of Canaanites.(11) The story does not also appear in the Gospel of Luke. Bultmann has suggested that the Syrophoenician woman’s story is merely a variant of the Centurion’s story, but it seems unlikely given the variant details.(12) While it is unclear why Luke chose not to include the story of the Syrophoenician woman, it is likely that Matthew adapted the story from the Gospel of Mark, since Mark’s author did not use the Q source.(13) We can see that Matthew’s version is altered in some ways, most considerably by introducing dialogue from the disciples, who discourage Jesus from helping the woman. I would suggest that the inclusion of the disciples was added to offset blame from Jesus for initially refusing to help the woman.
I also find interesting that in Mark’s version, Jesus says, “Let the children be fedfirst,” (emphasis mine) while Matthew says more directly, “It is not good to take bread out of children’s mouths and throw it to the dogs.”(14) While this difference in the text may be insignificant, Mark’s version suggests a changing paradigm of inclusion that, while still privileging Jewishness, intends to include Gentiles. This would likely have been an important distinction in a community that was predominantly Gentile. In both versions, however, Jesus acquiesces and performs the miracle for the woman.
Mark’s Treatment of Women
Also distinctive and relevant for interpretation of Mark 7:24-30 is the author’s treatment of women within the Gospel of Mark. Approximately one quarter of the characters in the Gospel are women, a surprising fact considering the Bible’s tendency to tell the stories of men.(15) Furthermore, “thirteen pericopes center around women… However, only five named women appear.”(16) It is notable that the author included women in his narrative; I believe this was purposeful and is reflective of the opportunities women had in Markan communities and the pervasiveness of stories of women in the Jesus movement.
Mark also uses terminology of discipleship heavily (as opposed to apostleship, which was limited to the 12 men), which is suggestive of his intended inclusion of women.(17) While this terminology may not jump out as meaningful, I believe that the choice to focus on discipleship was meant to encompass women. It appears that Mark viewed women as important parts of the community. His treatment of the Syrophoenician woman also suggests that he saw them as wise leaders and perhaps, even, prophetic voices within the movement. While most of the characters in Mark’s narrative do not understand Jesus’ role, “Jesus’ women disciples seem to be the first to understand his message.”(18)
Exegesis of Mark 7:24-30
Taking into consideration these elements, we can view the passage with the knowledge we have discerned about its meaning for Mark’s community and what it can mean for us today. For modern readers, exorcism may seem a fantastical, anti-scientific idea. Today’s American context would likely explain the phenomena that Jesus’ followers experienced as possession differently, but interpretation need not be concerned with the veracity of Jesus’ miracle. For our purposes, it is not important whether or not the Syrophoenician’s daughter was truly possessed; it is important that people in Mark’s context and Jesus’ context “did not simply think of these as cases of possession and exorcism, but experienced them that way.”(19)
Directly after an encounter with the Pharisees in which Jesus dissolves barriers between Jews and Gentiles, Mark places the encounter with the Syrophoenician woman and “show[s] Jesus explicitly crossing those barriers himself” (though not without a push).(20) Considering the first century context, we can take note of the fact that a woman is coming to Jesus– it appears that she is either widowed or unwed, or it would have been more appropriate for the child’s father to approach Jesus and for the woman to remain at home, in the domain prescribed for women during this period.(21) Coupled with her ethnic identity, we see in this woman a brave desperation. “As a woman, her status is already lower– lower if she is a widow, lower still if unwed. Thus she has less to lose– and her daughter’s health to gain.”(22) She is concerned for her possessed child and cares little about the social boundaries that appear in her way. Jesus, perhaps unexpectedly, initially upholds these barriers. He refuses help and likens her to a dog, seemingly a slur that degraded her ethnicity (and, perhaps notably, not her gender, which he makes no substantive comment on).
While it may be tempting to redeem Jesus for the harshness of his language, I believe it is likely that this story stems from truth– it seems unlikely that the biblical authors would have chosen to include a passage in which their spiritual leader uses harsh language toward Gentiles (who it seems were likely to have been dominant within the Markan community) unless it were rooted in a truth. While it is sometimes suggested that Jesus’ use of “dogs” reflected “only an evidence of the picturesque speech of the peoples of this time, who understood that a metaphor should not be taken literally,” this reasoning seems to be naively hopeful.(23) It seems more likely that “dog” was indeed a slur used by observant Jews to refer to Gentiles.(24) While some scholars suggest that “it is possible that the dogs concerned are pets and not thought of as distasteful,” it seems the most redemptive interpretation would convey Jesus as provocative, intending to elicit a response from the woman.(25) Even this interpretation must admit that Jesus uses unkind, prejudiced language.
Although this characterization of Jesus as someone who might use a slur may be at odds with what we might favor in a messiah, it is significant that Jesus’ mind is changed– and that it is changed by the woman he, only moments before, saw fit to degrade. Despite being put down, the woman presses Jesus for the sake of her daughter (notably using the respectful kyrie, despite Jesus’ lack of respect for her).(26) Kyrie can be translated as “Lord,” the only time Jesus is addressed as such in the text.(27) This title could be indicative that the Syrophoenician woman is of the few characters to recognize Jesus as messiah and may indicate the value of wisdom that Mark placed on women. She is portrayed as brave and intelligent, intruding not only physically, but “on Jesus’ conviction about whom his gifts of healing would be extended. Her love for her daughter impels her to break with social norms that would not sanction her initial speech to Jesus.”(28) This leads to Jesus breaking social conventions as well– he speaks to her, listens to her, and learns from her. Even Jesus cannot argue with her retort. Jesus heals her daughter in his only exorcism from a distance within the Gospel.(29)
Some interpretations offer that in Mark’s gospel, faith is a necessary precursor for miracles. Jesus, our secret messiah, does not perform miracles in order to build faith (in Mark’s gospel), but as a response to it. Perhaps we can see in this story a woman of unwavering faith, despite the reality that she is not a Jew. While this, in many ways, can offer a privileged view of the Gentile, who surprises Jesus with faith greater than that of many practicing Jews, it neglects the strength of the woman who challenges Jesus’ mission and convinces him to change his way. While the Syrophoenician woman did have the faith necessary for the miracle, “it is noteworthy that a woman responds in a way that the male disciples have failed to do”– her faith is not the whole story.(30) To abstract her faithfulness from her physical body and social location is an injustice to the text. Her identity as female is notable not only because of her first century context, but because Jesus seems unconcerned with it. While he is hostile to her, his words suggest his hostility is based on her Syrophoenician identity; Jesus does not seem to find her gender problematic for her actions and is willing to learn from her. While Jesus’ use of the slur is ugly, we can celebrate the reality that the Syrophoenician woman stood up to his comment and caused him to rethink it and perhaps, in the act of exorcism, repent for his xenophobic remarks.
Conclusion
The Gospel of Mark was written during a time of tension between Jews and Gentiles. Writing either before or after the destruction of the Jerusalem temple, we can see that the author of Mark would have been influenced by the very real issues concerning Jewish and Christian identity during the period. While these tensions are apparent in the preceding scripture passage and in the language Jesus uses toward the Syrophoenician woman, the female character in the story is able to offer wisdom that leads Jesus to confront his own hypocrisy. Considering Mark’s elevation of women throughout the Gospel, we can see that he likely intended to paint women as wise and as important leaders in the community. The Syrophoenician woman’s wisdom, in this passage, surpasses the wisdom even of Jesus. She confronts his disrespect and challenges him to choose compassion over exclusion. Jesus, impressed by the woman’s faith and her intelligent response, changes his tone and heals the woman’s daughter.
The Syrophoenician woman is a strong character who does what she believes is right in the face of social barriers and prescribed roles. She is witty, firm in her belief, and willing to confront Jesus respectfully. She convinces him to expand his own understanding of his mission and can be seen as a character convinced of her own authority and strength. Jesus, at first denying her request, recognizes her power and wisdom and is influenced by her thoughtful and provocative response to him. This passage can serve as a testament to women’s strength and authority within the Christian tradition, offering that women’s wisdom can surpass even that of Jesus of Nazareth. Mark is unambiguous in his presentation of the Syrophoenician woman as an impressive figure. While the passage’s portrayal of Jesus is ambiguous, we see that he was willing to listen to a marginalized voice and to offer his help. He was willing to be changed and influenced by women and Gentiles, a lesson that can be valuable to us 2,000 years later.
- John Barton and John Muddiman, eds., The Oxford Bible Commentary(New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 887.
- Robert J. Miller and editor, The Complete Gospels: Annotated Scholars Version, rev. ed. (Santa Rosa, CA: HarperOne, 1994), 11.
- Marcus J. Borg, Reading the Bible Again for the First Time: Taking the Bible Seriously but Not Literally (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2002), 193.
- Bart D. Ehrman, The New Testament: a Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, 5th ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 89.
- While I will at times use “Mark” to refer to the author of the text, I do not, in so doing, refer to a particular Mark, but only to the Gospel’s anonymous author.
- Bart D. Ehrman, The New Testament: a Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, 5th ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 102.
- Bart D. Ehrman, The New Testament: a Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, 5th ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 92.
- Bart D. Ehrman, The New Testament: a Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, 5th ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 93.
- Bart D. Ehrman, The New Testament: a Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, 5th ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 93.
- Marcus J. Borg, Reading the Bible Again for the First Time: Taking the Bible Seriously but Not Literally (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2002), 195.
- Bart D. Ehrman, The New Testament: a Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, 5th ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 114.
- E.P. Sanders and Margaret Davies. Studying the Synoptic Gospels(London: Trinity Press International, 1989), 166.
- Robert J. Miller and editor, The Complete Gospels: Annotated Scholars Version, rev. ed. (Santa Rosa, CA: HarperOne, 1994), 54.
- Robert W. Funk with Mahlon H. Smith, The Gospel of Mark: Red Letter Edition (Sonoma, CA: Polebridge Pr Westar Inst, 1991), 128.
- Catherine Clark Kroeger and Mary J. Evans, eds., The Ivp Women’s Bible Commentary (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 549.
- Catherine Clark Kroeger and Mary J. Evans, eds., The Ivp Women’s Bible Commentary (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 549.
- Catherine Clark Kroeger and Mary J. Evans, eds., The Ivp Women’s Bible Commentary (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 550.
- Catherine Clark Kroeger and Mary J. Evans, eds., The Ivp Women’s Bible Commentary (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 549.
- Marcus J. Borg, Jesus: Uncovering the Life, Teachings, and Relevance of a Religious Revolutionary, 1.6.2008 ed. (New York, NY: HarperOne, 2008), 149-150.
- John Barton and John Muddiman, eds., The Oxford Bible Commentary(New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 900.
- Carol Meyers, Toni Craven, and Ross Shepard Kraemer, eds., Women in Scripture: a Dictionary of Named and Unnamed Women in the Hebrew Bible, the Apocryphal/deuterocanonical Books, and the New Testament(New York: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2001), 427.
- Carol Meyers, Toni Craven, and Ross Shepard Kraemer, eds., Women in Scripture: a Dictionary of Named and Unnamed Women in the Hebrew Bible, the Apocryphal/deuterocanonical Books, and the New Testament(New York: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2001), 427.
- Edith Deen, All of the Women of the Bible (New York: HarperOne, 1988), 191.
- James L. Mays, The Harpercollins Bible Commentary, rev. ed. (San Francisco: HarperOne, 2000), 910.
- John Barton and John Muddiman, eds., The Oxford Bible Commentary(New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 900.
- John Barton and John Muddiman, eds., The Oxford Bible Commentary(New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 900.
- Catherine Clark Kroeger and Mary J. Evans, eds., The Ivp Women’s Bible Commentary (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 555.
- Carol Meyers, Toni Craven, and Ross Shepard Kraemer, eds., Women in Scripture: a Dictionary of Named and Unnamed Women in the Hebrew Bible, the Apocryphal/deuterocanonical Books, and the New Testament(New York: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2001), 428.
- Robert J. Miller and editor, The Complete Gospels: Annotated Scholars Version, rev. ed. (Santa Rosa, CA: HarperOne, 1994), 30.
- John Barton and John Muddiman, eds., The Oxford Bible Commentary(New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 900.
Works Cited
Barton, John, and John Muddiman, eds. The Oxford Bible Commentary. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.
Borg, Marcus J. Jesus: Uncovering the Life, Teachings, and Relevance of a Religious Revolutionary. 1.6.2008 ed. New York, NY: HarperOne, 2008.
Borg, Marcus J. Reading the Bible Again for the First Time: Taking the Bible Seriously but Not Literally. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2002.
Deen, Edith. All of the Women of the Bible. New York: HarperOne, 1988.
Ehrman, Bart D. The New Testament: a Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings. 5th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Kroeger, Catherine Clark, and Mary J. Evans, eds. The Ivp Women’s Bible Commentary. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002.
Mays, James L. The Harpercollins Bible Commentary. Rev. ed. San Francisco: HarperOne, 2000.
Meeks, Wayne A. The HarperCollins Study Bible: New Revised Standard Version with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1997.
Meyers, Carol, Toni Craven, and Ross Shepard Kraemer, eds. Women in Scripture: a Dictionary of Named and Unnamed Women in the Hebrew Bible, the Apocryphal/deuterocanonical Books, and the New Testament. New York: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2001.
Miller, Robert J., and editor. The Complete Gospels: Annotated Scholars Version. Rev. ed. Santa Rosa, CA: HarperOne, 1994.
Sanders, E.P., and Margaret Davies. Studying the Synoptic Gospels. London: Trinity Press International, 1989.
Smith, Robert W. Funk with Mahlon H. The Gospel of Mark: Red Letter Edition. Sonoma, CA: Polebridge Pr Westar Inst, 1991.
Spong, John Shelby. Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism: a Bishop Rethinks the Meaning of Scripture. Reprint ed. San Fransico: HarperOne, 1992.
