The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 97

Vera. 21-28.-Healing of the daughter of Ver. 22.-Behold. The word marks the the Canaanitish woman. (Msrk vii. 24-30.) sudden and unexpected character of the incident. A woman of Canaan. She be- Ver, 21.-Went thenoe. Jesus left the longed to the accursed race of Canaan, the place, probably Co.pemaum, where the above ancient inhabitants of the land, doomed. discourse had been hold, and where it was indeed, to destruction, but never thoroughly no longer safe for him to remain. He ho.d extirpated, 8t. Mark calls her" a Greek," grievoualy offended the dominant party by i.e. a Gentile, and "a. Syro-PhCJlniciau," his outspoken words ooncerning purity and which explains her proper nationality. Out defilement; therefore, to escape any prema- of the same ooe.sta. Some join these words ture violence, he departed to a more secure with "a woman; " but ea.me out would still quarter. Into the ooa.ate (-ra. µ.lp11, "the imply that she left her own territory to meet parts") of Tyre and Bidon. The word Christ. Have meroy on me. She speaks as " coasts " here, ver. 22, and elsewhere, does though she herself were the one that needed not mean "sea-coasts," but '' bori!era." The healing, identifying herself with her dis- Authorized Version conveys a wrong im- eased danghter, llB though the horrible in- pression by its use of the word. These two cubus lay upon her own spirit and could not cities lay on the coast of Galilee, and be relieved without the cure of the suffering had never been really conquered by the girl. 0 Lord, thou Bon of David. Living Israelites, though allotted to the tribe of among a mixed population of J ewe and Gen- Asher. '.rhere ,was no very exact limitation tiles, she had heard this title applied to of. t.enitory between Phamician (of which Jesus; she knew something of the hopes of they were tlie capitals) and Jewish la!Jd, but the Hebrew nation, that they were expect- there was a great moral distinction. The ing a Messiah, son of the great King Do. vid, PhCJlnicians were sunk in the grossest ido- who should preach to the poor and heal the latry; the worship of Baal and Ashto.roth sick, as she heard that Jesus had done. We reigned among them with all its depravity know that the reputation of Jesus had spread and pollution. Whether onr Lord actue.lly into these parts, and that persons from this entered this district, or only approached its country had come to him to be healed (Ml'\lk confi!Jes, is a matter of dispute. The lan- iii. 8 ; Luke vi. 17). There is no reason to guage in the two extant accounts is am• suppose that the woman was a proselyte: biguous, and might be taken to imply either but evidently she was of a humble and re- proceeding. But we cannot suppose that ligious spirit, open to conviction, and of an Christ betook himself to the close neighbour- enlightened understanding, which needed hood of those evil towns. Ria injunotion to only grace and instruction to ripen into the apostles, when he sent them on their faith. At present she saw in Christ only 11 missionary tour, to abstain from going into merciful Wonder-worker-an error which any way of the Gentiles or entering any he o!ten combated, and which now by his Samaritan city (eh. x. 5), and his own decla- conduct he corrected; My daughter is ration which shortly follows, that he was sent grievously vexed with a devil. She mnst to the house of Israel, alike preclude the have lelllned from her Hebrew neighbours idea thnt he ever passed beyond the bound- to attribute her child's malady to demoniaOll! aries of the Holy Land. The woman, too, influence, as such an idea would not have who appealed to. him is said to have "come naturally occurred to a heathen Greek. The out away from those borders "-an expression power of the devil was shown more openly which could hardly have been used if Christ in heathen localities. We do not read of had at this time, been within them. And many bad cases of possession in strictly tha.t he did no mighty work in these Phce- Jewish districts. It is in Gentile or semi- nici1m cities may be gathered. from his de- Gentile regions that the worst instances nunciation of Chorazin nnd Bethsaida for occur; o.nd while the pagan inhabitants at- not' showiug the apprecfotion of his power tributed the mysterious maladies to natural and mercy .which these centres of heathen- causes, the truer insight of believers assigned dom would have exhibited had they been them, and often most justly, to spiritual equally favo1,1red (see oh. xi. 21; Luke x. agencies. In the present caae, the po- 13), If, as Chxyeostom suggests, Jesus, by sion must have been unconnected with any going to these partly Gentile districts, ethical relations. It was not that the ohild, wished to give a practical commentary on by any aot of her own, had put herself into the abrogation of the distinction between the demon's power. We must regard it, like clean and 'unclean (breaking down the w11ll the sufferings of inuo(l(lnt infants, as &. pro- of partition between Jew and Gentile), this videntie.l arrangement which God for wise lesson was given equally well by the 110- purposes allows. cepto.nce o.nd (JOmmendation of the Gentile Ver. 23.-Anawered her not a word. The woman's faith, even though Christ himself woman made no specifio reques\; she had was outside of p1gan terril ory. not brought the sufferer with her, and 100 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. 'MA'l'THEW. [err. xv. 1-39.