The Syrophoenician Woman (Mk 7:24-31)

Exegesis from the year 1996 in the subject Theology - Biblical Theology, grade: A, University of Dayton, Ohio, language: English, abstract: The pericope of the Syrophoenician woman (Mk 7:24-31) marks the breakthrough point of the Gentile mission in Mark's Gospel. Whenever I read or heard this story, I was struck by the harshness of Jesus' reaction towards this woman. I could not understand how he who had said: 'Give to him who begs from you, and do not refuse him who would borrow from you' could so harshly reject the woman's re-quest. This is the reason why I wanted to write my research paper about this pericope. I wanted to find out more about it than I had heard so far, for what I had heard had never fully satisfied me. In this paper, I will show that with the story of the Syrophoenician woman, Mark actually built a trap for the hearers of his Gospel, because Jesus' reaction reflects their attitude towards Gentiles. They did not want to share the eucharistic table with Gentiles. As the hearers sympathize with the protagonist Je-sus, they get trapped, because the woman's humility disarms their prejudices against Gentiles, and they have to change their attitude in the same way Jesus does. After textual, form, and redaction criticism I will focus on Jesus' and the woman's behavior from different perspectives. In discussing the issues raised by the text, I will concentrate on the striking part of Jesus' harsh reaction to the woman's request and how the woman responds to it. Many scholars have dealt with this issue, and so I will include aspects of feminist, socio-political, and narrative criticism.