Religion

Last edited Fri Jul 5, 2019, 03:10 PM - Edit history (1)

Jesus did refer to a Canaanite women as a a dog when she asked him to cure his daughter:

“It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs” (Matthew 15:26)

Here is the full quote:


22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.” 23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” 24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” 25 The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said. 26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” 27 “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” 28 Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.

So it can definitely be argued (as you have) that Jesus did not care to help the gentiles, and it was only after he died and came back as a zombie that he grudgingly did so.

Personally, I see it more as Jesus using this situation to show others (initially his disciples, but ultimately any who call themselves Christians) that THEY will be the ones charged with bringing his teachings to the rest of the world - because he would only be in a particular area of the world for a short period of time (I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel) ...so it would be up to others to spread the word:

"Go throughout the whole world and preach the gospel to all people."

Of course that still begs the question: Why did he refer to her as a dog?

Again, these are just my own thoughts, but I think he did this because he understood that they (his disciples) held the belief that gentiles were undesirable "dogs", so he showed them that even after this woman was refused help and insulted, she still had faith. This was done so that his disciples would confront and acknowledge their prejudices by being shown that this woman and other gentiles are also capable of such faith (and worthy of their assistance) before they were asked to reach out to the rest of the non-Jewish world.

Anyway, that's how I view this particular episode.

In any event, thank you for taking the time to respond and for the interesting discussion.

Tim