Mat 15:22-28 | RWP | e4.org | A Canaanitish woman ( γυνη Χαναναια ). The Phoenicians were descended from the Canaanites, the original inhabitants of Palestine. They were of Semitic race, therefore, though pagan. Have pity on me ( ελεησον με ). She made her daughter's case her own, "badly demonized."

‏ Matthew 15:22-28

A Canaanitish woman ( γυνη Χαναναια ). The Phoenicians were descended from the Canaanites, the original inhabitants of Palestine. They were of Semitic race, therefore, though pagan.

Have pity on me ( ελεησον με ). She made her daughter's case her own, "badly demonized."

For she crieth after us ( οτ κραζε οπισθεν ημων ). The disciples greatly disliked this form of public attention, a strange woman crying after them. They disliked a sensation. Did they wish the woman sent away with her daughter healed or unhealed?

I was not sent ( ουκ απεσταλην ). Second aorist passive indicative of αποστελλω. Jesus takes a new turn with this woman in Phoenicia. He makes a test case of her request. In a way she represented the problem of the Gentile world. He calls the Jews "the lost sheep of the house of Israel" in spite of the conduct of the Pharisees.

Even the dogs ( κα τα κυναρια ). She took no offence at the implication of being a Gentile dog. The rather she with quick wit took Christ's very word for little dogs ( κυναρια ) and deftly turned it to her own advantage, for the little dogs eat of the crumbs ( ψιχιων, little morsels, diminutive again) that fall from the table of their masters ( κυριων ), the children.

As thou wilt ( ως θελεις ). Her great faith and her keen rejoinder won her case.