11. One misses the spirit of the conversation be- tween Jesus and the Syrophcenician Avoman (Mt 1521-28= Mi^ 72-1-30) unless one observes tiiat it is a bandying of proverbs. The scene was evidently the lodging of Jesus and the Twelve. The woman had followed them indoors [in Mk 72' Tischendorf, after J<LD, reads elcreXdova-a], and she pressed her suit as they reclined at table. Perhaps a dog was in the apartment begging scraps. 'It is not right,' says Jesus, quoting an apt proverb, ' to take the chil- dren's bread and cast it to the whelps.' Cf. the Greek adage : ' You feed dogs, and do not feed your.self ' (avrbv ou rpeipoiv Kijvas rp4<peis), which Erasmus [Adag. under 'Absurda') thus explains:
' It was said of one who, while too poor to procure the necessaries of life, endeavoured to maintain an establishment of horses or servants. It will be appropriately employed against those who, by reason of the narrowness of their means, have scarce enough to maintain life, yet ambitiously endeavour to emulate the powerful and wealthy in fineness of dress and general ostentation. In short, it will be suitable to all who
PROVEKBS
PROVERBS
447
regard the thinjfs which belong to pleasure or magnificence, neglecting the tliiings which are more necessary.'
Tliere was another proverb : ' Never be kind to a neif^hbour's dog ' (fx-qiror ed ipSav yeiTovos Kvva), otherwise put : ' One who feeds a strange dog gets nothing but the rope to keep ' (6s Kwa rpiipeL ^ivov, TOVTif} /mSvov \ivoi fievei).
'The proverb warns you against uselessly wasting kindness in a quarter whence no profit will accrue to you in return. A neighbour's dog, after being well fed, goes back to his former master ' (ib. under ' Ingratitudo ').
It was some such })roverb that shaped our Lord's speech to the woman. He was not speaking after the heartless and insolent manner of the Rabbis, who branded the Gentiles as 'dogs' (cf. Mcgill. Ex. 12. 6 : ' "An holy convocation to you " : to you, not to dogs ; to you, not to strangers. ' Pirk. Eliez. 29 : ' He who eats with an idolater is like one that eats with a dog : for, as a dog is uncircumcised, so also is an idolater'). And the woman replied in like terms: 'Fea, Lord, for even the ivhelps eat of the crumbs that fall from the tabic of their masters.' Here also, it would appear, there is a proverb. Damis of Nineveh, tiie Boswell of Apollonius of Tyana, was once sneered at for the diligence wherewith he recorded his master's sayings and doings, taking note of every trifle. 'If,' he replied, 'there be feasts of gods and gods eat, certainly they have also attend- ants who see to it that even the scraps of ambrosia are not lost' (Philostr. Apoll. i. 19). It may be added that there is an Arabic proverb : ' It is better to feed a dog than a man,' the reason alleged being that the dog will not forget the kindness, but the man may {PEFQSt, July 1904, p. 271).
12. 'The gates of Hades' (Mt W% Cf. Is 38'", Job 38^^ Ps 913 IO718 ; Hom. II. ix. 312-313 :
^X^pos yo-p p-OL Keivos ofiQs AtSao irvXricnv, 8s x' eTepov p.€v Kevdy ^vi (ppealv dWo Se iLTrrj.
13. ' It is better if a heavy millstone were hanged about his neck, and he tvere flung into the sea' (Mt 186 = Mk 9'»2 =r Lk 17''). Cf . Kidd. 29. 2 : ' Dicit Samuel, Traditio est ut ducat quis uxorem et postea applicet se ad discendam Legem. At R. Jochanan dicit : Non mola collo ejus appensS. addicet se ad studium Legis.' The proverb was derived from the punishment of drowning. At Athens criminals were flung, with stones about their necks, into the Barathrum, a dark, well-like chasm (Aristoph. Equit. 1359-60; Schol. on Flut. 431). In B.C. 38 the Galilneans rose against Herod, and drowned his adherents in the Lake (Jos. Ant. xiv. xv. 10).
14. The narrow gate and the two ways (Mt 7'^- " = Lk 13^*). There is here an allusion to a favourite image of the ancient moralists which had passed into a proverb. ' Vice,' says Hesiod (B.C. 850-800), ' even in troops may be chosen easily ; smooth is the way, and it lietii very nigh. But in front of Virtue the immortal gods have put sweat. Long and steep is the way to her, and rough at first ; but when one cometh to the summit, then it is easy, hard as it was' (Works and Days, 287-292). Pythagoras of Samos (B.C. 570-504) adopted the image and elaborated it. He employed as a symbol of the two ways the letter q, the arcliaic form of T, hence callefl ' the Samian letter ' (Pcrs. iii. 56-57, v. 34-35). The upright stem represented the innocent period of childhood, and the divergent branches tlie after-course of youth and man- hood, pursuing the straight path of virtue or the crooked track of vice. Tiie image is found also in the Tablet of Kebes, an allegory in the style of a Platonic dialogue, a sort of (Jreek Pilgrim's Progress, purporting to be a desctription of a tablet which hung in the temple of Kronos, and emblematically depicted the course of human