To us there is in this history even more than the solemn interest of Christ's compassion and mighty Messianic working, or the lessons of His teaching. We view it in connection with the scenes of the previous few days, and see how thoroughly it accords with them in spirit, thus recognising the deep internal unity of Christ's Words and Works, where least, perhaps, we might have looked for such harmony. And again we view it in its deeper bearing upon, and lessons to, all times. To how many, not only of all nations and conditions, but in all states of heart and mind, nay, in the very lowest depths of conscious guilt and alienation from God, must this have brought unspeakable comfort, the comfort of truth, and the comfort of His Teaching. Be it so, an outcast, dog;' not at the table, but under the table. Still we are at His Feet; it is our Master's Table; He is our Master; and, as He breaks the children's bread, it is of necessity that the children's crumbs' fall to us, enough, quite enough, and to spare. Never can we be outside His reach, nor of that of His gracious care, and of sufficient provision to eternal life.
Yet this lesson also must we learn, that as heathens' we may not call on Him as David's Son,' till we know why we so call Him. If there can be no despair, no being cast out by Him, no absolute distance that hopelessly separates from His Person and Provision, there must be no presumption, no forgetfulness of the right relation, no expectancy of magic-miracles, no viewing of Christ as a Jewish Messiah. We must learn it, and painfully, first by His silence, then by this, that He is only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, what we are and where we are - that we may be prepared for the grace of God and the gift of grace. All men - Jews and Gentiles, children' and dogs' - are as before Christ and God equally undeserving and equally sinners, but those who have fallen deep can only learn that they are sinners by learning that they are great sinners, and will only taste of the children's bread when they have felt, Yea, Lord,' for even the dogs' under the table eat of the children's crumbs,' which fall from their Master's table.' __________________________________________________________________
[3482] Jos. War iii. 3. 1.
[3483] St. Matt. xv. 21.
[3484] So correctly rendered.
[3485] Or, the Passover-eve may have been Monday evening.
[3486] St. Matt. xv. 23.
[3487] St. Mark vii. 24, 25.
[3488] Ezra ix. 1.
[3489] St. Mark vii. 25.
[3490] Comp. Cannon Westcott, Introduction to the Study of the Gospels, Appendix C.
[3491] This view is advocated by Dean Plumptre with remarkable beauty, tenderness, and reverence. It is also that of Meyer and of Ewald. The latter remarks, that our Lord showed twofold greatness: First, in his calm limitation to His special mission, and then in His equally calm overstepping of it, when a higher ground for so doing appeared.
[3492] The term means little dogs,' or house - dogs.'
[3493] Midr. on Ps. iv. 8; Meg. 7 b.
[3494] Many passages might be quoted either similar, or based on this view of Gentiles.
[3495] Rev. xxii. 15.
[3496] Canon Cook (Speaker's Comm. on St. Mark vii. 26) regards this as one of the very few instances in which our Lord's words really differ in the two accounts.' With all deference, I venture to think it is not so, but that St. Mark gives what St. Peter had received as the impression of Christ's words on his mind.
[3497] St. Matt. xv. 28. __________________________________________________________________
CHAPTER XXXIV. A GROUP OF MIRACLES AMONG A SEMI-HEATHEN POPULATION
(St. Matt. xv. 29-31; St. Mark vii 31-37; St. Mark viii. 22-26; St. Matt. xi. 27-31.)
If even the brief stay of Jesus in that friendly Jewish home by the borders of Tyre could not remain unknown, the fame of the healing of the Syro-Phoenician maiden would soon have rendered impossible that privacy and retirement, which had been the chief object of His leaving Capernaum. Accordingly, when the two Paschal days were ended, He resumed His journey, extending it far beyond any previously undertaken, perhaps beyond what had been originally intended. The borders of Palestine proper, though not of what the Rabbis reckoned as belonging to it, [3498] were passed. Making a long circuit through the territory of Sidon, [3499] He descended - probably through one of the passes of the Hermon range - into the country of the Tetrarch Philip. Thence He continued through the midst of the borders of Decapolis,' till He once more reached the eastern, or south-eastern, shore of the Lake of Galilee. It will be remembered that the Decapolis, or confederacy of the Ten Cities,' [3500] was wedged in between the Tetrarchies of Philip and Antipas. It embraced ten cities, although that was not always their number, and their names are variously enumerated. Of these cities Hippos, on the southeastern shore of the Lake, was the most northern, and Philadelphia, the ancient Rabbath-Ammon, the most southern. Scythopolis, the ancient Beth-Shean, with its district, was the only one of them on the western bank of the Jordan. This extensive Ten Cities' district was essentially heathen territory. Their ancient monuments show, in which of them Zeus, Astarte, and Athene, or else Artemis, Hercules, Dionysos, Demeter, or other Grecian divinities, were worshipped. [3501] Their political constitution was that of the free Greek cities. They were subject only to the Governor of Syria, and formed part of Coele-Syria, in contradistinction to Syro-Phoenicia. Their privileges dated from the time of Pompey, from which also they afterwards reckoned their era.