Send us Fan Mail The story of Jesus speaking to the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15:21-28 (called the Syrophoenician Woman in Mark 7:24–30) is filled with meaning. It is vexing: Why does Jesus call her a dog? It is amazing: Why would Jesus speak to a foreign woman? It is filled with Jewish contradiction: Why does Jesus risk ritual uncleanliness by associating with her? Jesus was in a foreign land and he carried all the expectations and prejudices that a first century Jewish man would have with him. The most straight forward explanation for Jesus's initial indifference, his unkind ethnic slur, and his praise of her faith is that he overcame prejudice and opened his mind. But this is extremely offensive to many Christians. They say, "No, Jesus is perfect. He learned everything from the Father. He said this to the Canaanite woman as a test." But it is actually heretical to say that Jesus didn't learn and didn't make mistakes. It is a sneaky form of docetism (believing Jesus wasn't fully human) that is extremely common in Christianity. It negates the incarnation and the cross. It comes from a misinformed view of platonic perfection, sin and divinity. In this insightful episode, I examine what scholars think about this very informative passage in Matthew and the meaning of power. https://juniaproject.com/power-dynamics-jesus-canaanite-woman-matthew-15/ Harriett Reed Congdon on Prof. Frances Taylor Gench's discussion of power dynamics in the story. https://theseattleschool.edu/blog/grenz-parker/ about Prof. Angela Parker's womanist interpretation of Matthew 15. "Back to the Well: Women’s Encounters with Jesus in the Gospels" by Frances Taylor Gench, 2004. 21 Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. 22 Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” 23 But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” 24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” 25 But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” 26 He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” 27 She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’[f] table.” 28 Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed from that moment. Many modern Christians are Docetist. In the history of Christianity, docetism (from the Koine Greek: δοκεῖν/δόκησις dokeĩn "to seem", dókēsis "apparition, phantom") was the doctrine that the phenomenon of Jesus, his historical and bodily existence, and above all the human form of Jesus, was mere semblance without any true reality. Broadly, it is taken as the belief that Jesus only seemed to be human, and that his human form was an illusion.
