I read a disturbing passage today. Matthew 16 :21-28
21Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession." 23Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us." 24He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel." 25The woman came and knelt before him. "Lord, help me!" she said. 26He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs." 27"Yes, Lord," she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." 28Then Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted." And her daughter was healed from that very hour.
What disturbs me is that Jesus is using an odd term to describe a group of people. He calls Canaanite's Dogs! From what I know about the history of the time the Jews didn't like that Canaanites, so it would have been common for them to use a term like this. But we're talking about Jesus here. Peace & Love, respect your fellow man? What's going on here. Why would he use a term like that?
Any thoughts?
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1 comment:
This comment, supposedly by Jesus is not homogeneous with the rest of his teachings, and was mostly likely NOT his. Of course, entertaining this idea means that you have to disregard the notion that the bible is the 100% inherent word of God. In actuality, even the most fundamental and scholarly churches, of which I was a part, do not necessarily believe that our bibles today (any translation) are the 100% accurate words of God. They sidestep this issue by saying that the “original transcripts” WERE the inherent word of God. But of course, no ORIGINAL transcripts exist. Instead we have hundreds of thousands of copies, which do differ.
Does this mean we throw the bible away, because it is not the 100% accurate word of God? No, of course not. It still contains a LOT of wisdom and useful teaching.
Frank
knarf@lconn.com
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