NOTES for Мк 7:26-27
Today the evangelist for the first time draws our attention to the fact that Jesus heals not only Jews but also representatives of other peoples who lived in the lands surrounding Palestine. In this case the issue is the daughter of a woman called a "Syrophoenician." In the New Testament this is what the inhabitants of the Phoenician cities, Tyre and Sidon, are called; they are located on the territory of modern central Lebanon, and the modern name of Sidon is Saida. At first glance, Jesus' treatment of the woman who turned to Him for help seems too harsh: comparing a person to a dog is perceived by us today as humiliation and insult. Yet in those days and in the setting where the Savior's earthly ministry took place, this phrase of His sounded somewhat differently. In those days there could be no question at all of universal equality or of equal rights for all. This concerned, among other things, the equality of people before God: for a Jew, for example, every Gentile was in this respect a second-class person, since he did not belong to God's people and, as a rule, did not think about God. Even those representatives of Gentile nations who were interested in Judaism and came to synagogues to listen to the reading of Scripture and the sermon, and such cases occurred, the Jews still did not consider equal to themselves. For full equality one had to become a Jew to the end: be circumcised, begin to observe all religious rules; in short, completely change one's way of life. Those who did not do this the Jews considered ritually unclean, like unclean animals, among which they counted dogs as well. Comparing the woman who came to Him with a dog, Jesus evidently wants only to tell her that the Kingdom of God, which she wants to touch, and without such a touch no healing is possible, is given first of all to the "children," that is, to the Jews as God's people, and only then to all the others. When the woman agrees with this order of things, she receives what she asks in the same way as those who belong to God's people. Thus the evangelist points out that the Kingdom of God, which Jesus brought into the world, is open to everyone, whether Jew or Gentile.