The Syrophoenician Woman and The Deaf Mute Man
Mark then contrasts Jesus's fight over obeying Jewish law with two healings of Gentiles. Jesus travels to two cities in what is now Lebanon. Mark tells the story of the Syrophoenician woman who finds Jesus at a friend's house in Tyre and begs him to heal her demon possessed daughter. He brushes her off, saying ""First let the children eat all they want,...for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs." (27), where the children are the children of Israel and the dogs are the Gentiles, a metaphor found in other Jewish writing (Kilgallen 138). "'Yes, Lord,' she replied, 'but even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.'" (28) Impressed with her answer, he tells her to go home and she returns home to find her daughter healed. This is one of the few times, and the only time in Mark, that Jesus performs a miracle at a distance, that is he does not touch nor is he near the girl. He only says it will be done and it is done, by his will alone. This passage shows that, according to Mark, Jesus's primary mission was to the Jews first and only then the Gentiles but Gentiles, as long as they have belief, can be part of that mission as well.
Jesus goes to the Decapolis and comes across a crippled man who is deaf and mute. He touches his ears and touches his tongue with his own spit and says "Ephphatha! (which means, 'Be opened!')" (34), Mark translating from the Aramaic. The man regains his hearing and speech and word quickly spreads. In this miracle, as opposed to the woman, Jesus uses specific techniques, (the touching, the spit, the word), to effect a cure. This passage could be a fulfillment of Isaiah 35:5-6.
The argument with the Pharisees about food laws and the Syrophoenician woman is also found in Matthew 15:1-28
Read more about this topic: Mark 7
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