Chapter # 7 Paragraph # 2 Study # 3
June 28, 2022
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(320)
1901 ASV
7:25 But straightway a woman, whose little daughter had an unclean spirit, having heard of him, came and fell down at his feet.
7:26 Now the woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by race. And she besought him that he would cast forth the demon out of her daughter.
7:27 And he said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs.
7:28 But she answered and saith unto him, Yea, Lord; even the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs.
7:29 And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the demon is gone out of thy daughter.
7:30 And she went away unto her house, and found the child laid upon the bed, and the demon gone out.
- I. "But straightway...".
- A. The adversative, "but/alla" is intensive (the opposite of what one might think).
- 1. This "opposite" is in the deliberate setting of Mark in that Jesus wished to be "unknown" in the regions of Tyre, and was unable "to escape notice" (Mark's only use of this term and one of only six uses in all of the New Testament).
- 2. What is "the opposite of what one might think" is the fact that a Gentile woman with a daughter who was possessed by an unclean spirit fell prostrate at his feet to seek deliverance for her daughter.
- B. The "straightway" ("euthus") has consistently been Mark's "word" for "this is the next thing to which we, his readers, are to focus our attention".
- 1. It has been used in contexts wherein there are unfolding events that preclude the meaning, "immediately", as it relates to "time".
- a. Mark is the majority user of this word: he uses it 41 times out of 60 uses in the entire New Testament and the closest other user is Matthew who uses it only 8 times and Luke, in Acts, is next and he uses it only 4 times.
- b. Mark's first use is in 1:3, which is in a quote from Isaiah 40:1-3, and it has no obvious link to "temporal immediacy".
- 1) There is this, however, that a "straight path" (from Isaiah) is, according to the maxim, "the shortest distance between two points is a straight line". This would have the notion of "geographical immediacy" in terms of "the most immediate path from one place to another".
- 2) In every case, for Mark, at issue is the fact that his records that begin with "euthus" have the sense of a "straight line link" between the preceding record and the one following. In other words, Mark is insisting that we "link" the records involved so that we do not miss seeing the meaning that one record provides for the understanding of the next record.
- 2. It does, then, have, a sense of "immediacy", in this respect: it is crucial for his readers to now turn their attention to what is next recorded.
- 3. Mark's use seems to mean "Lo, and behold...". It has a sense of an unexpected, and, maybe even, shocking, event that demands our attention following hard on the heels of the previous, pre-conditioning, event(s) that make it possible for us to understand the text/context.
- II. "...A Woman...".
- A. The word "woman" is grammatically placed between the aorist participle translated "after hearing" and the phrase "of Him". Thus, literally "...having heard, a woman, concerning Him...". The odd placement signifies the Greek method of emphasis by putting the major idea first in word order.
- 1. This means that it is the "hearing" that should dominate our thinking, rather than the more obvious "shock" of the event being concerned with the fact that it is a woman who has taken the initiative here.
- a. This signals Mark's larger concept of a person's response to "hearing". God, in the Person of Jesus (His Word: John 1:1), has spoken and "liability or Life now rest upon the hearer(s)". This is the issue of "accountability" (the focus of the first words of the paragraph).
- b. In this case, the "hearing" was that of "a woman".
- 2. The odd placement is intentional in order to snag our attention as we read Mark's record.
- B. Mark's issues of "woman".
- 1. He has 14 references to "woman" in his Gospel.
- a. The first of the 14 is 5:25, followed quite closely by his second reference in 5:33. These two references refer to the woman with the hemorrhage of blood whose record interrupts the record of Jairus' appeal to Jesus to heal his daughter. In that context, the issues include a contrast between a "lowly diseased woman" and a "high male official" who both obtain their desires "by faith". Also, in that context, both "problems" have to do with physical illnesses. Thus, Mark's introductory use of "woman" has to do with "female neediness".
- b. The third and fourth of the 14 is 6:17 and 18, which allude to "the woman of Herod's brother, Philip". In that context, the murder of John the Baptizer is of paramount importance as an unlawful outcome of "the leaven of Herod". Also, in that context, Herod is "out foxed" by his illegitimate "wife" (woman); (Jesus identified Herod as "that fox" in Luke 13:32).
- c. And the fifth and sixth of the 14 are in our current text/context.
- d. The next six uses of the 14 are in contexts of "women" being used by the opposition to test Jesus' identity as "the Christ".
- e. And the final two of the 14 are 14:3 and 15:40 where "a woman/some women" are noteworthy for their actions regarding Jesus' crucifixion.
- 2. The most likely "straightway link" in respect to Mark's foci on "woman" is that between the woman with the hemorrhage and this woman.
- a. This "link" involves the regular Markan practice of switching back and forth between "might" in the material realm of health/disease and the spiritual realm of freedom-of-spirit/demon-possession.
- b. This "link" involves the persistence of "woman" in seeking her desire from Jesus (in a contrast to a biblically established norm of women seeking their desire from their husbands (Genesis 3:16)).
- c. This "link" involves the events that took place between the record of the first "woman" and the second, of which there are many. It may well be that the emphasis in the first "woman" account is upon "your faith" and the emphasis in the second "woman" account is upon "your humility".
- 1) The first woman was fearfully surreptitious, but convinced and desperate.
- 2) The second woman was properly compliant, but also desperate.
- d. This "link" also serves to "connect" the theses of Mark that what was recorded in/under Law ("As it is recorded in Isaiah the prophet..."; 1:2) is fulfilled in/under Grace ("...John the Baptizer appeared..." 1:4).
- e. This "link" strongly hints at the future extension of "Grace" to "Gentiles" as the expression of the coming of The Church into existence (Mark wrote his record in the time-context of the existence and program of the Age of The Church so that his readers would have no problem seeing the record as a hint of the history that followed, and that included them).
- C. Mark's Record Of The Woman's Posture.
- 1. Having come... .
- a. Mark uses this verb in 83 of his texts (out of 599 in the New Testament).
- b. This verb makes "coming"/"going" a large concept in the Gospel.
- c. The woman did not sit around waiting for Jesus to come to her. This is a testament to the power of desperation coupled to the power of possibility as it exists in Jesus. It is illegitimate to call a way of thinking "faith" if it is not coupled to ("yoked together") activity that is commensurate to that "thinking".
- 2. She fell prostrate before His feet (shades of Psalm 2:12, "Do homage to the Son..." ?).
- a. This "prostration" is a behavior described in only three texts in Mark.
- 1) The first event is in 3:11 where unclean spirits would fall down before Jesus to shout "You are the Son of God".
- 2) The second event is in 5:33 where the first woman in Mark's record comes to Jesus only after she is found out and feels compelled to try to "make it right" that she "stole" her health from Him in surreptitious fear.
- 3) The third event is in our current text (7:25) in a contrast to the first woman of "faith". This "Greek" knew she was "out of order", just as was the first woman, but determined to approach Him anyway.
- b. This "prostration" is an overt expression of abject submission, but with a request arising out of the desperation of her soul.
- 3. She fell at His feet.
- a. Very much like the first time anyone placed themselves "at His feet": Jairus of Mark 5:22, who was an exalted man in his culture, but a desperate man in his soul.
- b. The next use of "feet" is in 6:11 where Jesus instructs His disciples to shake the dust off of their feet as a witness to the rejection of the message.
- c. The third use is in our current text.
- d. The fourth use is in 9:45 where the issue is "having a foot that offends" so that "Hell" is looming.
- e. And the last use is in 12:36 where David is quoted as saying that the enemies of the "Lord", Who sits at the right hand of "The Lord", will be placed "beneath His feet" (Psalm 110"1). This also seems to echo the words of Psalm 2.
- D. Mark's Characterization Of The Woman.
- 1. He uses the word Ellenis which is typically "a Greek", but his meaning is not her "genetic descent", but, rather, her "cultural appropriation".
- 2. He clarifies his meaning for Ellenis by telling us of her "race": she was a Syrophoenician (a mixed race of Syrian and Phoenician). There is the strong implication that her "mixed racial background" qualified her to be called "a dog". The Jews were particularly fond of the "purity" of their racial heritage, and made their attitude known by calling others "dogs". It was not "a dog is man's best friend" kind of attitude, nor the "dog is God spelled backwards" kind of mush-brained idiocy that attempts to get people over emotional hardship by bringing a "comfort dog" to them.