Mark
7:24-37
With thanks to page sponsor 2015:
St James the Great,
Egerton, Kent (UK)
- Reading the Text:
- NRSV (with link to Anglicized NRSV) at Oremus Bible Browser.
- Greek Interlinear Bible, ScrTR, ScrTR t, Strong, Parsing, CGTS, CGES id, AV.
- The Bible Gateway: NRSV, RSV, NIV, NASB, CEV, The Message, KJV, etc.
- The Blue Letter Bible. KJV, alternate versions, Greek text with concordance, commentaries.
- The World Wide Study Bible includes commentary & sermons.
- Historical References, Commentary and
Comparative Texts:
- The Five Gospels Parallels, John W. Marshall, University of Toronto.
- Beggar At A Banquet (Babylonian Talmud, Berakoth 31b). At (Rutgers University Dept of Religion) Mahlon H. Smith's Into His Own: Perspective on the World of Jesus companion to the historical study of Christian texts.
- Comparative texts about Spirit Possession and Exorcism from Philo, Lucian, Josephus, the Babylonian Talmud, Midrash, Philostratus, etc. At (Rutgers University Dept of Religion) Mahlon H. Smith's Into His Own: Perspective on the World of Jesus companion to the historical study of Christian texts.
- XX.46-48, 56, 58; XXI.1-7; Tatian's Diatessaron (c. 150-160).
- Chapter VI, On Prayer, Tertullian (c. 199)
- From the Catena Aurea, Patristic Commentary by St Thomas Aquinas.'
- "Of Faith & Love," Martin Luther, c. 1522.
- Twelfth Sunday after Trinity, Mark 7:31-37, Martin Luther, c. 1525.
- From the Geneva Notes.
- ""Dog" here signifies a little dog, and he uses this term that he may seem to speak more reproachfully"
- From
Matthew
Henry's Commentary.
- "Thus, while proud Pharisees are left by the blessed Saviour, he manifests his compassion to poor humbled sinners, who look to him for children's bread. He still goes about to seek and save the lost."
- From
Wesley's Notes.
- "He put his fingers into his ears - Perhaps intending to teach us, that we are not to prescribe to him (as they who brought this man attempted to do) but to expect his blessing by whatsoever means he pleases: even though there should be no proportion or resemblance between the means used, and the benefit to be conveyed thereby."
- From the
Commentary on the Whole Bible
(Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, 1871).
- "But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled--"Is there hope for me here? . . . Filled FIRST?" "Then my turn, it seems, is coming! "--but then, "The CHILDREN first? . . . Ah! when, on that rule, shall my turn ever come!" But ere she has time for these ponderings of His word, another word comes to supplement it."
- From The People's New Testament, B.W. Johnson, 1891.
- Contemporary Commentary, Studies, and Exegesis:
- Commentary,
Mark 7:24-37, Elisabeth Johnson, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org,
2018.
- "Any way you look at it, this woman is an outsider."
- "A Tyre Mentality," Karoline Lewis, Dear Working Preacher, 2018.
- Center for Excellence in Preaching, Leonard Vander Zee, 2018.
- "Did Jesus just call that woman a dog?" LaDonna Sanders Nkosi, Living by the Word, The Christian Century, 2018.
- "What It Takes to Get Men to Listen," Todd Weir, With All My Soul, 2018.
- "Be Opened," Debie Thomas, Journey with Jesus, 2018.
- "What to Make of Jesus and the Syrophoenician Woman?" Dancing with the Word, Janet Hunt, 2018.
- "Humility and Jesus," Charles Cowen, Modern Metanoia, 2018.
- "Healing the Broken Social Body," Peter Leithart, Political Theology, 2018.
- "Not Jesus' Ephphatha," Art & Faith Matters, Lynn Miller, celebrating our creative and living God by generating art and architecture resources for congregations and individuals. Art and Faith Matters facebook page contains additional resources.
- "Good News in Abundance," Law and Gospel Everywhere, Glenn Monson, 2018.
- A Plain Account, Rick Power, 2018.
- Commentary,
Mark 7:24-37, Micah D. Kiel, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org,
2015.
- "The gospel is not just advocacy or social programs. It is encounter that changes."
- "What the Syrophoenician Woman Teaches," David Lose, ...in the Meantime, 2015.
- "Commendable Faith," Steve Godfrey, Church in the World, 2015.
- "God Said Yes to Me," Karoline Lewis, Dear Working Preacher, 2015.
- Lectionary Greek, Rob Myallis, 2015.
- "A Young Man Named Pablo and the Syrophoenician Woman," Janet H. Hunt, Dancing with the Word, 2015.
- The Center for Excellence in Preaching, Scott Hoezee, resources from Calvin Theological Seminary: Comments & Observations, Textual Points, illustration ideas, 2015.
- "Crumbs: Jesus and the Ethnic Slur," David Henson, Edges of Faith, 2015.
- "Does Jesus learn a lesson?" Peter Lockhart, A Different Heresy, 2015.
- "When Crumbs Are Enough," Beth Scibienski, 2015.
- "Who Belongs?" Suzanne Guthrie, At the Edge of the Enclosure, 2015.
- Study Notes, Travis Meier, The Bartimaeus Effect, 2015.
- "The Change Prayer Brings," Katie Munnik, The Presbyterian Record, 2015.
- "Reading the Bible with Clean Hands," Jeremy Maarshall, Slouching Toward Emmaus, 2015.
- "The Politics of Kids and Dogs," Amy Allen, Political Theology Today, 2015.
- "Just between you and me," Howie Adan, Just Off the Map, 2015.
- "The Stuff Under Our Tables," Andrew Prior, One Man's Web, 2015.
- Gospel Irrepressible, Glenn Monson, Law and Gospel Everywhere, 2015.
- "It Is Not Fair," lectionary poetry by Scott Barton, 2015.
- Commentary,
Mark 7:24-37, Matt Skinner, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org,
2012.
- "Look for the Syrophoenician woman in the back row of church this Sunday. Maybe she's the one whose reputation discourages her from getting involved or the one who slips out during the last hymn to avoid having to mix with the churchy 'insiders.' But she keeps coming back, fiercely convinced that if anything you preach week-in and week-out is true, then it's got to be true for her, too."
- "Dogs and the Kingdom of God," David Lose, Working Preacher, 2012.
- "I tend to think that the more challenging or difficult a passage, the more likely it is to lead to a great sermon. Which means, of course, that there should be a lot of great sermons heard across the country this coming Sunday, as this week's Gospel reading is a doozey! :)"
- Holy Textures, Understanding the Bible in its own time and in ours,
Mark 7:24-37, David Ewart, 2012.
- "The racial and religious differences between Jesus and the Gentile woman are unchanged. But what has changed is that courage and caring for a daughter have been shown to be acceptable to God - even when they come from a Gentile heart; even when they come from a woman's heart; even when they come from the heart of a woman who has publically shamed herself by being out alone, by speaking to a man, and by daring to speak back to a man."
- "Not Worthy to Gather up the Crumbs," Suzanne Guthrie, Soulwork toward Sunday: At the Edge of the Enclosure, 2012.
- "She did not cower before Jesus. Nevertheless, I know that from time to time I am not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs from beneath the table."
- "Open Your Ears before You Speak," Peter Woods, I Am Listening, 2012.
- Lectionary Blogging, John Petty, Progressive Involvement, 2012.
- "One final note: The syrophoenician woman 'heard'. The deaf and mute man now 'hears' and 'speaks.' Neither of these people is named. Shortly, in 8:18, Jesus will accuse his own disciples of not hearing: 'Do you have ears, and fail to hear?'"
- "Jesus Is In the House!" Alyce M. McKenzie, Edgy Exegesis, 2012.
- "Jesus Getting Caught with His Compassion Down," Carl Gregg, The Hardest Question, 2012.
- "Who is 'under the table' in your life?"
- "Of Sidewalk Messages and Crumbs from God's Table," Janet Hunt, Dancing with the Word, 2012.
- "A few months ago on my morning walk I was surprised by 'crumbs' left behind. They were not meant for me at all. I even knew there were not meant for me, but left over, they fed me still."
- Comentario del Evangelio por Marisa Strizzi, Marcos 7:24-37, Working Preacher, 2012.
- Commentary,
Mark 7:24-37, Alyce M. McKenzie, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org,
2009.
- "...there is your story and mine−that Jesus is in our house, with full power to heal; that we need to approach him with compassion and perseverance, praising God the sender of the Savior of all people, not just people like us."
-
Commentary, Mark 7:24-30, Brian K. Blount,
The African American Lectionary,
2010.
- "Why is this such an important story in Mark?s Gospel? Mark wants us to holler for transformation the way that woman hollered for the transformation of her daughter?s life situation, even when all the signals say, you ought to shut up, give up and go home."
- Comments (commentary) and Clippings (technical notes for in-depth study), Chris Haslam, Anglican Diocese of Montreal.
- "Jesus Heals the Daughter of the Syro-Phoenician Woman," "A Man with Stammering and Deafness Healed," Michael A. Turton's Historical Commentary on the Gospel of Mark, "a complete verse-by-verse commentary on the Gospel of Mark, focusing on the historicity of people, places, events, and sayings in the world of the Gospel of Mark."
-
"First
Thoughts on Year B Gospel Passages in the Lectionary,"
Pentecost 14, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.
- "Many times it has been disciples who have least understood the issues as they have uncoupled devotion to God from devotion to people, because they have uncoupled God and people. Then a prejudiced ?god? feeds a prejudiced people."
- Exegetical
Notes by Brian Stoffregen at CrossMarks
Christian Resources.
- "Lamar Williamson, Jr. (Mark, Interpretation) connects these texts with verses 1-23 with, "If in the preceding passage Jesus "declared all foods clean" (7:19), in these stories he declares all persons clean, whether a Gentile woman in a pagan city or a man of indeterminate race in the unclean territory of the Decapolis. The stories are two examples of the sample principle: Both advance Jesus' repudiation of traditional taboos (p. 137).""
- "Jesus Does Everything Well," Rev. Bryan Findlayson, Lectionary Bible Studies and Sermons, Pumpkin Cottage Ministry Resources. Includes detailed textual notes.
-
"A
Great, Non-Hostile, Merciful, Takeover," Cathy Lessman,
Sabbatheology, The Crossings Community, 2009.
- "We too, with our paucity of credentials, appeal to Jesus for mercy, already trusting (because we've heard of and believe 'the spectacular rescue-mission') that we will receive it too."
- "Yelping Puppies: The Canaanite Woman," Gospel Analysis, Sermons from Seattle, Pastor Edward F. Markquart, Grace Lutheran Church, Seattle, Washington. Detailed background and exegesis.
- Marginally Mark, by Brian McGowan, Anglican priest in Western Australia.
- Wellspring of the Gospel, Ordinary 23B, Catherine McElhinney and Kathryn Turner, Weekly Wellsprings.
-
"Shortcomings
and Faith," Larry Broding's Word-Sunday.Com:
A Catholic Resource for This Sunday's Gospel. Adult Study, Children's
Story, Family Activity, Support Materials.
- "What kinds of shortcomings do people have? How do those shortcoming challenge people to grow?"
- "Mark 7: The Syrophoenician Woman and the Deaf Mute Man," wikipedia.
- "A Symbolic
Approach to Mark 7." Jerome H. Neyrey, Forum 4,3 (1988):63-91.
- "Since the purpose of God's law was not to separate covenant from non-covenant members but to gather all peoples in God's mysterious election, the particularistic kosher laws are judged abrogated. And so the issue of clean/unclean in Mark 7 may be focused on the question of washing hands and vessels, but these are but symbols of the larger discussion of purity and pollution."
-
"Magic, Miracles, and The Gospel," L. Michael White. PBS From
Jesus to Christ.
- "Probably in some ways, and more than any other issue within the development of early Christianity and the gospels tradition, miracles present one of the problematic areas."
- "Miracles,
In Other Words: Social Science Perspectives on Healings," Jerome H. Neyrey,
University of Notre Dame, 1995.
- "...we should attend to the institution in which the healing takes place, either kinship or politics. What roles does the family have in an illness? How are they socially and economically affected? What role do they play in the seeking of a cure? What costs do they pay or debts to they incur? What if the healing occurs in the political realm, even if this is a healing shrine such as the temple of Asclepius at Epidaurus? Healings, moreover, might have important political implications, for "prophets" arose, echoing themes of liberation and freedom. The political significance of the account of the healing by the Jewish Eleazar before the emperor Vespasian and his retinue should not be discounted (Josephus. Ant. 8.45-48)."
- "Meals, Food and
Tablefellowship." Jerome H. Neyrey, in The Social Sciences and New Testament
Interpretation, 159-82. R. L. Rohrbaugh, ed. Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1996.
- "How can readers understand the particular ceremony of meals and table fellowship? Why are meals so important as symbols of broader social relationships? How can we peer below the surface and grasp the social dynamics encoded in meals and commensality, what anthropologists call "the language of meals"?"
- "Women Transformed: The Ending of
Mark is the Beginning of Wisdom," by Marie Sabin in CrossCurrents, Summer 1998.
- "Mark images God's Kingdom as a state of new consciousness. Here, women are followers and reflectors of Wisdom/Jesus, prophets entrusted with preaching the word of ongoing resurrection."
- Commentary,
Mark 7:24-37, Elisabeth Johnson, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org,
2018.
- Recommended articles
from ATLAS, an online collection of religion and theology journals, are
linked below.
ATLAS Access options are available for academic institutions, alumni of
selected theological schools, and clergy/church offices. Annotated list of "starting place" articles at ATLAS for this week's texts (includes direct links).
- Bishop, Jonathan,
"Parabole and Parrhesia in Mark," Interpretation, 1986.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Broesterhuizen,
Marcel, "Faith in Deaf Culture,"
Theological Studies, 2005.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Burkill, T.A., "The Historical Development of the Story of the Syrophoenician Woman,"
Novum Testamentum, 1967.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Burrus, Virginia,
"Blurring
the Boundaries: A Response to Howard C. Kee,"
Theology
Today, 1992.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Cooper-White, Pamela,
"Women and Conflict,"
The Living Pulpit, 1994.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Dahlen, Robert W., "The Savior and
the Dog: An Exercise in Hearing," Word & World, 1997.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Derrett, J., Duncan, "Law in the New Testament: The Syro-Phoenician Woman and the Centurion of
Capernaum," Novum Testamentum, 1973.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Dewey, Joanna,
"Women in the Gospel of Mark,"
Word & World, 2006. (Section on
this text begins on page 24.)
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Fowl, Stephen, "God's Choice," The
Christian Century, 2006.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Gregory, Howard,
"The Healing of a Deaf Man with an Impediment of Speech,"
Journal for
Preachers, 2007. (Sermon)
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Gnanadason, Aruna, "Jesus and the
Asian Woman: A Post-Colonial Look at the Syro-Phoenician Woman/Canaanite
from an Indian Perspective," Studies in World Christianity, 2001.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Gundry-Volf,
Judith, "Spirit, Mercy, and the Other,"
Theology Today, 1995.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - "Homiletical Helps," Concordia Journal, 2009. (Section on this text begins on page 304)
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Husted, Heidi,
"When the Gospel Goes to the Dogs,"
The Christian Century, 2000.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Kee, Howard Clark,
"The
Changing Role of Women in the Early Christian World," Theology Today,
1992.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Loader, William,
"Challenged at the Boundaries: A Conservative Jesus in Mark's Tradition,"
Journal for the Study of the New Testament, 1996.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Long, Thomas G., "Living by the Word: Mark 7:24-37," The Christian Century,
2009.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Neumark, Heidi, "Kitchen Drama," Currents in
Theology and Mission, 2009.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Ortberg, John, "True Grit,"
The Christian Century, 2003.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Perkinson, Jim, "A Canaanitic Word in the Logos of Christ; or The Difference the
Syro-Phoenician Woman Makes to Jesus," Semeia, 1996.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials -
Petersen, Norman R., "The Composition of Mark 4:1-8:26,"
Harvard Theological Review, 1980.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Posey, Lawton W.,
"Deafness: Physical and Spiritual,"
The Christian Century, 1980.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Rieth, Sarah M., "Scriptural Reflections on Deafness and Muteness as Embodied in the Healing
Journeys of Adult Survivors of Sexual Abuse," Journal of Pastoral
Theology, 1993.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Rhoads, David,
"Jesus and the Syrophoenician Woman in Mark,"
Journal of the American
Academy of Religion, 1994.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Sabin, Marie,
"Women Transformed: The Ending of
Mark is the Beginning of Wisdom," Cross
Currents, Summer 1998.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Scherer, Paul E.,
"A Gauntlet with a Gift in It: From Text to Sermon on Matthew 15:21-28 and
Mark 7:24-30," Interpretation, 1966.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Schnabel, Eckhard J., "Israel, the People of God, and the Nations,"
Journal of the
Evangelical Theological Society, 2002.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Skinner, Matthew L.,
"'She Departed to Her House': Another Dimension of the Syrophoenician
Mother's Faith in Mark 7:24-30," Word & World, 2006.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Smith, Julien CH,
"'The construction of identity in Mark 7:24-30: the Syrophoenician Woman and the problem of ethnicity," Biblical Interpretation, 2012.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Sprinkle, Joe M.,
"The Rationale of the Laws of Clean and Unclean in the Old Testament,"
Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 2000.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Stanley, Christopher
D.,
"'Neither Jew nor Greek': Ethnic Conflict in Graceo-Roman Society,"
Journal for the Study of the New Testament, 1996.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Sun, Poling, "Naming the dog: another Asian reading of Mark 7:24-30," Review and Expositor, 2010.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Wefald, Eric K., "The Separate Gentile Mission in Mark: A Narrative Explanation of Markan
Geography, the Two Feeding Accounts and Exorcisms," Journal for the
Study of the New Testament, 1995.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Wink, Walter, "The Education of the Apostles: Mark's
View of Human Transformation," Religious Education, 1988.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
- Bishop, Jonathan,
"Parabole and Parrhesia in Mark," Interpretation, 1986.
- Sermons:
- "Desperate Belief," Charlene Han Powell, Day 1, 2015.
- "It's Time We Open Up," The Rev. Peter Marty, Day 1, 2006.
- "Love behind the Secret Door," Pentecost 14, 10 September 2006, Hubert Beck, Göttinger Predigten im Internet: Every Sunday Sermons based on the RCL by a team of Lutheran theologians/ pastors.
- "Yelping Puppies: The Canaanite Woman," Pastor Edward F. Markquart, Grace Lutheran Church, Seattle, Washington.
- "When Hope Won't Quit," the Rev. Dr. Ozzie E. Smith, Day 1, 2003.
- "Persistence," the Rev. Dr. Elton Richards, Day 1, 1997.
- Father Andrew M. Greeley, "Priest, Author, Sociologist," Commentary and Homily:
- With Children:
- Worshiping with Children, Proper 17B, 2015. Including children in the congregation's worship, using the Revised Common Lectionary, Carolyn C. Brown, 2012.
- "Storypath Lectionary Links: Connecting Children's Literature with our Faith Story," 2015, Union Presbyterian Seminary.
- "He Does All Things Well!" Charles Kirkpatrick, Sermons4kids.com.
- "A Greek Woman Asks Jesus' Help for her Daughter," Sunday School Lessons: Family Bible Study, art projects, music, stories, etc.
- "Mark 7 & 8 Word Search," Don Crownover's Bible Puzzles.
- Drama:
- "Foreign Dogs," from A Certain Jesus by Jose Ignacio and Maria Lopez Vigil. Ideal for catechetical and liturgical dramatization of today's gospel. Claretian Publications.
- "Gentile Woman" monologue, Ross Olson.
- Graphics & Bulletin Materials:
- "Clean and Unclean," Julie Stecker (LTSG), YouTube video monologue, 2010.
- Clip Art Images: Mark 7:31-37, Misioneros Del Sagrado Corazón en el Perú.
- Bulletin Cover/Art, Mark 7:24-30: color, gray-scale, line drawing, John Stuart, Knoxville, TN. (Free use by churches.)
- Mark 7:31-37 at Cerezo Barredo's weekly gospel illustration. Liberation emphasis.
- Images for this week's readings, Pitts Theology Library Digital Image Archive.
- Mark 7:24-30, Mark 7:31-37, Liturgical Drawing, Maria d.c. Zamora, Claretian Resources, Philippines. ("Download and use these for free.")
- Hymns and Music:
- “She Came to Jesus” an original hymn by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, 2002, celebrates the faith of a woman with a sick child in Matthew 15:21-28 and Mark 7:24-30. Tune: SLANE (“Be Thou My Vision”). This hymn is in Songs of Grace: New Hymns for God and Neighbor and Singing the New Testament.
- Hymnary.org, hymns, scores, media, information.
- Contemporary/Praise Song suggestions, Together to Celebrate, David MacGregor.
- Fine Arts Images Linked at The Text This Week's Art Index:
- Movies scenes with the following themes,
listed at The Text This Week's Movie Concordance:
- Clean/Unclean
- Healing - See especially Awakenings
- Seeing/Seeing Again
- "Possession" by Evil
- Study Links and Resources for the Book of Mark
