Chapter # 7 Paragraph # 2 Study # 4
July 12, 2022
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(322)
1901 ASV
7:27 And he said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs.
7:28 But she answered and saith unto him, Yea, Lord; even the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs.
7:29 And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the demon is gone out of thy daughter.
7:30 And she went away unto her house, and found the child laid upon the bed, and the demon gone out.
- I. Jesus' Response To This Syrophoenician Greek.
- A. "And He was saying to her..." (Imperfect Active) because she "was asking Him" (Imperfect Active).
- 1. Mark presents this as an on-going interaction with a "settled" outcome (lego).
- 2. This indicates that the woman would not let go of her desire and was pestering Him. There are shades of Jesus' instruction in Luke 18:1-8 in this record of Mark.
- 3. His response was rooted in her identity as a Syrophoenician Greek with a "little daughter" who was possessed by an unclean-spirit/demon.
- a. Her home life had to have been difficult and chaotic with a demon constantly present.
- b. Her cultural "Greek surroundings" (so-called "seekers of wisdom": 1 Corinthians 1:22) had done her no good, but was actually a liability. This is very much like the woman with the issue of blood in 5:25 in that "she had endured much at the hands of many physicians and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse" (NASB).
- c. Her mixed race genetics had done her no good, and was also actually a liability.
- d. His response was, initially, persistently "No".
- B. His "No".
- 1. "Go away" or "Permit" (Aorist Active Imperative Second Person Singular).
- a. The text/context argue for "Permit" because Jesus is suggesting that this non-Jew would be taking food away from the children. This is a mystery in one way: Jesus had so much to offer that doing something for this woman would not have made a dent in the provision of food for the children (a fact proven by His willingness to meet her need once she voiced her humility).
- b. But the "go away" is also a "built-in" implied demand because she was persistent and also was He.
- 2. First the children to be satisfied (Aorist Passive Infinitive). This word, "satisfied", is used by Mark only four times; in this text (7:27) and, previously, in 6:42 (the thousands ate and "were satisfied"), and in 8:4, 8 (the thousands were, again, fed and satisfied).
- a. The major issue is that the "hunger" was becoming a "driving" factor.
- b. This was more intensively true in the situation of the 4,000 because "they have remained with Me now three days and have nothing to eat".
- c. Jesus is linking the requested exorcism with the idea of people eating food. Clearly He is identifying His multi-faceted ministry (healing, exorcism, and teaching) with "eating" (i.e. consuming the Bread of Life).
- d. Jesus is seeming to argue that an "exorcism" outside of Jewry would be, in a sense, taking away from "the children".
- 1) How was this a "taking away" (especially since He did it anyway)?
- 2) Perhaps in the sense of a divine shift of attention from "rejectors" to others who have had no hope (Acts 13:46). This is pictured in His departure unto Tyre; no longer was He present among "the children". This departure, however, was designed to be temporary and only subjected the children to the "loss" for a brief time (as in the feeding of the 4,000 who got nothing to eat for three days). Later, however, the entire plan of God shifted from its fixation upon the nation to the building of the Church in which Gentiles would possess a large portion.
- 3. His rationale.
- a. "...for NOT is good...". The word "good" is used by Mark in 11 texts and it means "to have the necessary factors required to make a situation better".
- b. "...to take the bread of the children...". The "children" are in need of beneficial food.
- c. "...and to cast to the little dogs...". The dogs would seem to be benefitting at the expense of the children. This is, as noted above, a removal of Jesus (He Who gives you bread from Heaven: John 6:33) from the physical presence of Israelites so that they have no "manna" to gather in the absence of Jesus' words.
- II. The Syrophoenician Greek Woman's Response To Jesus.
- A. "Now, she answered and was saying to Him...".
- B. "Lord". This appellation is used in reference to Jesus three times prior to this context and in each one the "Lord" is the "Sovereign Over" all things. It is a reference in some senses to Omnipotence (i.e., "the infinity of Power"; a very major part of the appellation, "God").
- C. "Also, the dogs under the table are eating from the crumbs of the children". She astutely, and with great humility, pointed out that the "children" would not really suffer any loss.
- III. What Mark Has Done.
- A. He has added an hitherto, mostly implied and undeclared aspect, of "repentance" to the mix.
- B. With the two concepts of "admission of need" and "expectation of help" is added "humility" (which, as a concept, is directly involved in Isaiah's record of the commission to "bring down the mountains" of arrogance--the opposite of humility). There is no repentance where pride is "at the root". Admission of "need" must be genuine. This means that "need" has to be defined properly. In the Gospel, "need" is invariably the absence of a legitimate basis for "standing" in the presence of God. Men often think that they have a "need" that is not a genuine "need" because the greatest "need" of man is harmony with God.
