[Addendum to my post:
https://lebanoniznogood.blogspot.com/2023/02/jesus-jews-are-masters-of-phoenician.html]
I have asked several Christian clergymen about their interpretation of the story of the Phoenician-Greek-Syro-Canaanite woman, in which any common sense reader can see that Jesus was at the very least prejudiced against non-Jews and clearly declared his mission to be the salvation of the Jewish people and not anyone else. Their embarrassed response generally plays on word meaning and translation issues. Many translations from the original Greek suggest that the Church in general was not comfortable with this passage, as it shows Jesus as a Jewish racist supremacist who really didn’t care about delivering his message to non-Jews.
Some try to minimize the shocking impact of acknowledging Jesus’s Jewish nationalism and perhaps racism by resorting to translations and interpretations. One Catholic clergyman from Poland tried to explain his way out of the dilemma by saying that when Jesus compares Phoenicians to the dogs of the Jewish masters/children, he means “cute little doggies” or pets as a term of endearment and did not intend to disparage non-Jews. I am not surprised by this priest who idiotically equates a modern day "western" attitude to pets with the attitude of Bronze Age Near Eastern people. He's Polish after all: Stupid and ultra-conservative Catholics who, not long ago, declared Jesus to be King of Poland [See re-posted piece from 2016 archives: [https://lebanoniznogood.blogspot.com/2023/04/2016-archives-poles-turn-right-back-to.html ].
Indeed, several English translations of this passage deliberately and unethically insert the adjective “little” before the word “dogs”. Fact is, to the present day, a “dog” in the Semitic Near East is a derogatory term. Calling someone a dog in this part of the world could get you in trouble. It is injurious and insulting and generally refers to someone who is submissive, without dignity and honor, capable of base and vile actions. That is, in my opinion, what Jesus meant: To disparage the Phoenicians, at the time the neighbors of the Hebrews, to show them as lowly creatures who come begging him, the supreme Jewish lord claiming to be no less than the son of God, for a few misery crumbs of his supposed “divine” powers. Note that the Phoenicians are also a Semitic people, probably the closest to the Jewish Hebrews in their culture, language and religious practices, and that poor "dog" woman apparently spoke the same language, Aramaic, as the arrogant Jewish "master" Jesus. Imagine if that woman was an African or an Asian or a European... Jesus might have ordered his disciples to stone her to death per Jewish tradition.
So, to dispel any ambiguities, I have researched the original Greek text and placed side-by-side a literal English translation next to the Greek text, specifically to avoid any embellishment or alteration of the text for aesthetic or grammatical reasons, but instead to leave the text as raw and as close to the intent of the author as possible.
Mark’s gospel was written in Greek, and many agree that it was written some 100 years after the supposed existence of Jesus (certainly after 70 AD when the Romans destroyed the Jewish temple in Jerusalem). Also, there is consensus that it was written anonymously (i.e. no one knows who the author is), and the name “Mark” was made up by the early Church to grant the text some authority. [see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Mark] for details. For the Greek text below, I have used the “Berean Greek New Testament 2016” out of several options available on the site shown below. I do not read Greek, but I am flabbergasted that all these church experts and bible scholars cannot even agree on the original Greek text as it was written. I suspect they disagree perhaps on translating from ancient to modern Greek? It’s mayhem, I tell you, that the so-called “word of God” is so metamorphic that one wonders about the fallacy of it all.
(Matthew's version of the story is even worse. See: Matthew 15:21-24)
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From https://biblehub.com/texts/mark/7-24.htm
Mark:7-24
Greek:
Ἐκεῖθεν δὲ ἀναστὰς ἀπῆλθεν εἰς τὰ ὅρια Τύρου. Καὶ εἰσελθὼν εἰς οἰκίαν οὐδένα ἤθελεν γνῶναι, καὶ οὐκ ἠδυνήθη* λαθεῖν·
Literal English:
From there also, having risen up, he went away into the region of Tyre and Sidon. And having entered into a house, no one he was wishing to know, and not he was able to be hidden.
Mark 7:25
Greek:
ἀλλ’ εὐθὺς ἀκούσασα γυνὴ περὶ αὐτοῦ, ἧς εἶχεν τὸ θυγάτριον αὐτῆς πνεῦμα ἀκάθαρτον, ἐλθοῦσα προσέπεσεν πρὸς τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ·
Literal English:
But immediately, having heard a woman about him, of whom had the little daughter of her spirit unclean, having come, fell at the feet of him.
Mark 7:26
Greek:
ἡ δὲ γυνὴ ἦν Ἑλληνίς, Συροφοινίκισσα τῷ γένει· καὶ ἠρώτα αὐτὸν ἵνα τὸ δαιμόνιον ἐκβάλῃ ἐκ τῆς θυγατρὸς αὐτῆς.
Literal English:
Now the woman was Gentile, Syro-Phoenician by race, and kept asking him that the demon he should be cast forth out of the daughter of her.
Mark 7:27
Greek:
Καὶ ἔλεγεν αὐτῇ “Ἄφες πρῶτον χορτασθῆναι τὰ τέκνα· οὐ γάρ ἐστιν ⇔ καλόν λαβεῖν τὸν ἄρτον τῶν τέκνων καὶ τοῖς κυναρίοις βαλεῖν.”
Literal English:
And he was saying to her, “permit first to be satisfied the children, not for it is good to take the bread of the children, and to the dogs to cast it.”
Mark 7:28
Greek:
Ἡ δὲ ἀπεκρίθη καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ “〈Ναί〉, Κύριε· καὶ τὰ κυνάρια ὑποκάτω τῆς τραπέζης ἐσθίουσιν ἀπὸ τῶν ψιχίων τῶν παιδίων.”
Literal English:
- but she answered and says to him, “Yes, Lord, even the dogs under the table eat of the crumbs of the children.”
Mark 7:29
Greek:
Καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῇ “Διὰ τοῦτον τὸν λόγον ὕπαγε, ἐξελήλυθεν ἐκ τῆς θυγατρός σου τὸ δαιμόνιον.”
Literal English:
And he said to her, “because of this – word, go, he has gone forth out of the daughter of you the demon.”
Mark 7:30
Greek:
καὶ ἀπελθοῦσα εἰς τὸν οἶκον αὐτῆς εὗρεν τὸ παιδίον βεβλημένον ἐπὶ τὴν κλίνην καὶ τὸ δαιμόνιον ἐξεληλυθός.
Literal English:
And having gone away to the home of her, she found the child lying on the bed, and the demon having gone out.
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