15:22 And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, [thou] son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.
15:23 But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.
15:24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
15:25 Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.
15:26 But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and cast [it] to dogs.
15:27 And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.
15:28 Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great [is] thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.
2007-07-15 19:33:16 · 5 answers · asked by kaltharion 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
This passage was written in line with a whole chapter about the lack of need to follow the written law, but to follow the New Covenant, according to Christians. You have to read this in this context. Jesus tells her that her ways are traditionally "unclean" as he has just been preaching about, but she replies" yet the dogs eat of the crumbs..." indicating to Jesus that she understands that her faith is realized not through adherance to the Torah but through the other things Jesus mentions earlier in the chapter. Which is why he answers her prayer.
Whenever you read Matthew, it's really important that you take Judaism into your mind because he wrote primarily as a Jew to other Jews, so he devotes his writings to connecting the Hebrew Scriptures to Jesus' teachings, much more so then other writers and much more deliberately, although you do see Paul address these issues in his letters frequently.
I hope this helps.
2007-07-15 19:44:30 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
Jesus was sent only to the house of Israel, God's chosen people. Those who were non-Israelites were called gentiles. Here it sounds like he might be insulting the lady by calling her a dog, right? But really he is just making an analogy, as he always did with his parables, and teaches her that it was not part of his mission to do anything with the gentiles. The woman understood this, but pointed out that even the crumbs are good enough for the dogs. Because of her great faith, Jesus went ahead and blessed her daughter, even though she was a gentile.
2007-07-16 02:44:48 · answer #2 · answered by zxcv 2 · 2⤊ 1⤋
My take on this is that you have to remember Jesus taught in parables. I think there was a lesson in this for the woman of Canaan as well as Christ's diciples. The woman had faith and the diciples learned that Christ didn't come only for the lost sheep of the House of Israel (his question seems to be rhetorical), but for everyone if they will have faith.
2007-07-16 02:43:45 · answer #3 · answered by rndyh77 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Some say it was a "test" of her faith, to see if she was fervent enough to counter his arguments. I've heard some arguments having to do with Jesus teaching a socio-political lesson to the people around, showing 1) how intelligent women were, and 2) that their logic of denying the foreigners help was stupid logic, so Jesus let her prove it for him.
Either way, he healed her daughter. That's the main thing.
2007-07-16 02:38:47 · answer #4 · answered by embroidery fan 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
You have a problem with what he said?
The woman didn't.
Maybe you can learn something from her.
2007-07-16 02:38:30 · answer #5 · answered by hisgloryisgreat 6 · 2⤊ 2⤋