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Week 06 | Thursday | Mark 7:24-30


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This week's readings are all from Mark chapter 7. Click here to see the full reading and a list of each day's readings. Each day's segments of the readings will be posted on this site during the week.

Today's Reading:

After Jesus left there, he went to the region of Tyre. When he went into a house, he did not want anyone to know, but he was not able to escape notice. Instead, a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him and came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, of Syrophoenician origin. She asked him to cast the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, “Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and to throw it to the dogs.” She answered, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Then he said to her, “Because you said this, you may go. The demon has left your daughter.” She went home and found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone. (Mark 7.24–30 NET)

The previous translation is from the NET Bible translation. Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NET) are from the NET Bible® copyright ©1996, 2019 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved.

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Jamie Crooch
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@siteadmin I do struggle with this passage. It rubs against my view of Jesus love and mercy toward the least of these and welcoming all. The result was mercy. But why did Jesus equate her to a dog?

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Shelley Johnson
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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.

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Jimmy Doyle
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@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)

 

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Vickie Taylor
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Am I correct to think that Tyre and Sidon were not the hub of Jewish culture? Would this conversation happen within hearing distance of not only Jews but Gentiles as well? Although sounding harsh to us today, could Jesus has wanted Gentiles to know that their faith in him could save them? Here also, Jesus heals from a distance. It wasn’t until the woman got home that she realized her daughter was well. I see her running home to check and be sure her daughter was healed and then praising God for the healing.

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Jimmy Doyle
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@vltaylor1136 Vickie

You asked:

Am I correct to think that Tyre and Sidon were not the hub of Jewish culture? Would this conversation happen within hearing distance of not only Jews but Gentiles as well? 

Correct Tyre and Sidon are two Phoenician cities on the Mediterranean coast. They were not Jewish areas, and there was tension between Jews and Phoenicians during the first and second centuries AD, but Jews lived and had communities in many cities. So, it's hard to know what the surrounding audience would have been. Jesus had wanted to remain secret in Tyre, but could not due to people coming to see him. Mark has already reported in chapter three that people were traveling from these cities to Galilee to be healed by Jesus, so his fame had reached those cities. The picture seems to be that the people seeking him were locals. 

I see her running home to check and be sure her daughter was healed and then praising God for the healing.

Yes! And did she come back and tell Jesus? The disciples? Somehow the rest of that story comes to us, of what happened to her and her daughter after she left Jesus' presence.

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Vickie Taylor
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I am not seeing the post for Mark 7:31-37. Is anyone else having this problem?

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@vltaylor1136 For some reason it is not showing up on the sidebar. but it is posted:

https://read-scripture.com/week-06-friday-mark-731-37/

 

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@vltaylor1136 Fixed now. Thanks for catching that!

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