Week 06 | Thursday | Mark 7:24-30

The podcast helps remind me there are many ways we could read this -- it's a hard passage to know anything for sure. I just keep reminding myself to read this passage through the lens of the whole Bible. And that tells me Jesus is not cruel or rude, so He has purpose here.

@jcgram Jamie, it's a tough passage. It does end with mercy. But Jesus' initial response to the woman seem harsh, especially in light of her need and request.

In the context of Jesus' world, harsh and hyperbolic comments made to "outsiders", opponents, and other ethnic groups were common and not limited to Jews. The Romans slur of foreigners as "barbarians" is an example.  Typically, in most cultures, anyone who was not "us" was considered secondary in importance at best. This doesn't necessarily help with the difficulty for us, but it does put it in a context where, though it would be seen as a typical slur, it would not have been shocking, offensive, or maybe even unexpected to most of Mark's first-century audience.

There are also other passages in the NT that use "dog" or "dogs" to refer to people. One is the parallel to this passage found in Matthew (which has a few differences from the Mark passage):

After going out from there, Jesus went to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that area came and cried out, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is horribly demon-possessed!” But he did not answer her a word. Then his disciples came and begged him, “Send her away, because she keeps on crying out after us.” So he answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and bowed down before him and said, “Lord, help me!” “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs,” he said. “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, your faith is great! Let what you want be done for you.” And her daughter was healed from that hour.

(Matthew 15.21–28 NET)

Jesus also mentions dogs in Matthew 7:6

Do not give what is holy to dogs or throw your pearls before pigs; otherwise they will trample them under their feet and turn around and tear you to pieces.

(Matthew 7.6 NET)

Paul says to the Philippians in regard to those who were pressuring them to be physically circumcised:

Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh! For we are the circumcision, the ones who worship by the Spirit of God, exult in Christ Jesus, and do not have confidence in the flesh...

(Philippians 3.2–3)

In second Peter those who return to a life of sin are compared to dogs who return to their vomit, using a reference to Proverbs 26:11:

For if after they have escaped the filthy things of the world through the rich knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they again get entangled in them and succumb to them, their last state has become worse for them than their first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment that had been delivered to them. They are illustrations of this true proverb: “A dog returns to its own vomit,” and “A sow, after washing herself, wallows in the mire.”

(2 Peter 2.20–22 NET)

Lastly, in the book of Revelation, those who are outside the New Jerusalem, who are among the wicked, are called 'dogs':

Blessed are those who wash their robes so they can have access to the tree of life and can enter into the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the sexually immoral, and the murderers, and the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood!

(Revelation 22.14–15 NET)