The Syrophoenician Woman and Her Little Dog
The secret meaning concealed within the slur
In Did Jesus Just Call That Woman a Bitch? Steven Jones writes about an incident found within two of the synoptic Gospels in which Jesus apparently refers to a woman as a dog. I’m here to provide an alternative explanation based on a careful examination of the texts.
Mark’s version
24 And from thence he arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into an house, and would have no man know it: but he could not be hid.
25 For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet:
26 The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.
27 But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it unto the dogs.
28 And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs.
29 And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter.
30 And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed.
(Mar 7:24–30 KJV)
