24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

25 Then came she, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me!

26 But he answered and said, It is not mect to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs.!

27 And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.

28 Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: beh it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.

a woman of Canaan from (unлo) the same territory, and came out to meet Jesus probably from her house or village. Have mercy on me. The suffering of the child is the burden of the mother. Her prayer is for mercy for herself, so clearly is she identified with her daughter. Observe, she does not ask him to come and heal, as the nobleman in John 4: 49, and the ruler in Matt. 9: 18. Her faith shows itself in the very outset. Compare the similar faith of the centurion in Matt. 8:8, 9, and observe that in both cases it was manifested, not by an Israelite, but by a Gentile. Son of David. Evidently the woman had some knowledge of the Old Testament, and its prophecies of a Messiah. She may have been a proselyte. Grievously vexed with a devil. Literally very evil deviled, and so rendered in one of the old versions. On the nature of demoniacal possessions see note at close of chap. 8, page 85.

23. Send her away. Dismiss her. The language does not indicate whether by healing or by giving a positive refusal to heal. The reasonable implication, however, is that they had endeavored to drive her away, as was done in other parallel cases (Matt. 19: 13; Luke 18:39), but in vain. They recognized Christ's object to be retirement, an object which her presence and petitions were sure to defeat.

24. I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Compare note on Matt. 10: 6. Here, however, Christ defines his mission, not that of his disciples; but only the limits of his own personal and earthly ministry. It was not till after his death that the vail was rent, which shut out all but the high priest from the Holy of Holies-and by his death that he saves all who come unto him whether Jew or Gentile. James Morison gives well the reason for his declining to extend his earthly mission to Gentile races: "To have spread out his ministry farther during the brief period of his terrestrial career, would simply have been to have thinned and weakened his influence. Whatever might have been gained extensively would have been lost intensively." Compare Romans 11: 12-17, where the implication is that the rejection of Christ by the Jews was, in the Providence of God, the precursor of the preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles. It must come to the world either through the Jews, or despite the refusal of the Jews to receive it. Compare also

Matt. 21: 42, 43, where the implication is the

same.

25. Then came she. Hitherto she had followed him in the way; now she came, as Mark more particularly describes, to the house where he was. And worshipped him. Rather reverenced him. See note on Matt. 8: 2, where the original verb is the same.

26. It is not meet. Not, It is not allowable (ɛorer), though some manuscripts give this reading, but, It is not appropriate (zuióç). This is the reading of the Received Text, of the Sinaitic manuscript, and the undoubted reading in Mark 7:27. Mark adds an important sentence, which both explains this declaration and gives the key to the mother's reply. Christ says, "Let the children first be filled; for it is not meet," etc. This language implics that there is food in the Gospel for the Gentile as well as for the Jew, but that the Gospel should begin with Israel. It is clear from this that Christ did not teach that. the Gentiles were to be despised and outcast, and did not intend to be so understood. And cast it to the pet dogs. The Greek here (zvvúpion) signifies a little dog; is here probably equivalent to house or pet dog, in contradistinction to the dogs of the street, (zvor), which in the East are mostly without masters, and roam the towns and cities in packs, and feed upon offal and even corpses. The word which I have rendered "pet dogs," is used only here and in Mark 7: £7, 28. Its use, coupled with the intimation that the Gentiles are to be fed but not at first, gives an indefinable but important color to the whole incident, which has been generally overlooked.

27. Truth, Lord: for the pet dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from the table of their masters. Observe, that she acquiesces heartily in Christ's declaration: it is not fit that the dogs be fed before the children; that she gives the reason: because they feed from that which the children cast away or pass by in indifference; and that she recognizes in the Israelites the masters, in spiritual things, of the Gentiles. from whose table the Gentiles are to be fed, for she says not, The table of the master, but The table of their masters (των κυρίων αὐτῶν). Our English version, Yet the dogs feed, implies a contrast between his statement and hers. The orig inal (zal yug) implies that she gives, in her statement, a reason for her assent to his. It is not. needful to deprive the children to supply the

29 And Jesus departed from thence, and came nigh unto the sea of Galilee; and went up into a mountain, and sat down there.

30 And great multitudes came unto him, having with

them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet; and he healed them:k

31 Insomuch that the multitude wondered, when

dogs. So it is not needful to deprive Israel of its blessing in order to give me the blessing I crave: what they have cast away I seek. It would be different if I asked you to leave Israel to preach and to heal in Phoenicia.

28. Compare the language of Mark (7: 30), "And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed."

MEANING OF THIS INCIDENT. In interpreting this incident we are to remember certain facts which the commentators, as well as the skeptical critics, have sometimes forgotten. (a.) Jesus departed from Galilee, not to continue his ministry, but to rest from it. To have complied with the mother's request would have defeated his purpose; did defeat it, so that he straightway retreated again from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon into the mountains of Galilee, and thence into the region about Cæsarea Philippi (Mark 15:29; 16:13). (b.) He knew by a perfect spiritual insight just what measure of trial the woman could bear, so that the test, which would have been hazardous if attempted by another, was not so when used by him. (c.) The presumption that the tone of his voice, and the manner of his utterance, gave to his words a different impression from that which they bear in the simple reading of them, is not unreasonable, in the light of the result to which they led. The interpretation of this incident, which regards Christ as having repelled and rebuffed the woman, treated her with an appearance of Jewish contempt as a dog, and yielded at the last to her importunity, in spite of his original apparent, if not real intention, I cannot accept because (a), so interpreted, the incident stands absolutely isolated; there is no other case in the Gospels in which Christ refused help to the suffering and the needy. (b.) It contravenes his whole spirit; there is no other in which he indicated any sharing or appearance of sharing in the prejudice which treated Gentiles as dogs; on the contrary, his ministry in Galilee was begun by a public rebuke of that prejudice (Luke 4: 25, 26), a rebuke subsequently repeated at Capernaum (Matt. 8: 10-12). (c.) The language of the narrative itself does not, when carefully studied, confirm this impression-the impression of one hard to be entreated. His use of the distinctive word "little or pet dogs," his intimation of mercy to the Gentiles in the phrase "Let the children first be filled," (Mark 1:27), and the woman's method of taking up his

reply, not taking exception to his statement, but making his declaration, It is not fitting to take the children's bread and cast it to the pet dogs, a reason for her own, Truth, Lord, for the pet dogs eat of the crumbs, all look toward a different tone and spirit in the whole scene. It appears then to me that Christ intended his language as a rebuke to the disciples, not to the mother; that her quick intuition read in his tone what they failed to read in his words; that her ready repartee is the language of awakened hope, not the last despairing cry of a crushed and broken heart; that he neither intended to repel her nor, in fact, did so; but, knowing her faith, intended to draw forth its expression as a lesson to his as yet untaught disciples, to whom this woman of an apostate race was but a Gentile dog. In other words, I conceive that he spoke in the manner which we sometimes use with children, when we intend to grant their request yet hold them off, and make pretence of finding reason why it should not be granted, for the purpose of trying their earnestness. His very commendation, Great is thy faith, I take to be a recognition of her spiritual appreciation of his love, which his disc ples did not then and have not always since comprehended as well as she did.

The

29-39. THE FOUR THOUSAND FED. events which follow, up to and including chapter 18, describe a period of apparent retirement, spent partly in Galilee, partly north of Galilee in the districts about Cæsarea Philippi. Matthew does, indeed, record some public miracles, as the one here, and Mark adds more that Matthew omits; but it is noticeable that there is no intimation here, or anywhere after this, of any consid erable preaching of the Gospel in Galilee. On the other hand, Christ's endeavor to remain in retirement is not only clearly stated by Mark (9:30), but is also indicated, less clearly, in the fact that our Lord's miracles are performed apart from the multitude (Mark 7: 33; 8: 22-26), and are accompan. ied by injunctions of secrecy (Matt. 9: 80; Mark 7: 36; 8:26). He goes, too, from one district to another, as if seeking repose, which the throng deny him (Matt. 15: 29, 30, 39; 16: 1, 4; Mark 7: 22, 27). So marked is this change in his ministry, that his disciples taunt him with his concealment (John 7: 2-5). This period, up to his departure from Galilee, mentioned in Matthew 19: 1, to fulfill the ministry, more fully described by John, is devoted chiefly to instructing his disciples respecting the

they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see: and they glorified the God of Israel.

32 Then Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way.

33 And his disciples say unto him, Whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude?

34 And Jesus saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven, and a few little fishes.

35 And" he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground.

Kingdom of God, and embraces warnings against the leaven of the Pharisees (16: 1-12), the full disclosure of his own divinity (16: 18-20), accompanied by clearer prophecies of his death and resurrection (16:21-23), the manifestation of his glory in the transfiguration (17:1-8), and instructions respecting faith, humility, and forgiveness and kindness (ch. 17: 19 to ch. 18: 35). The account of the miracles of healing here referred to, as well as of the feeding of the four thousand, is fullest in Mark; see notes there (Mark 7: 31-37; 8: 1-9).

29. It is evident from the fact that after the feeding Christ took ship to come into the coasts of Magdala, which was on the western and populous side of the sea, that he came at first into the eastern coasts. Mark adds that he came through the coast of Decapolis, a district chiefly on the eastern shore. See note there. Went up into a hill country. Not a particular mountain, as might be supposed from our version, but up into the hill district east of the sea of Galilee; for the most part then, as now, wild and uninhabited. Sat down there. That is, stopped there. Sit is sometimes thus used in the N. T. as equivalent to dwell or abide, e. g. Matt. 4: 16; Luke 1: 79; Acts 14: 8.

30. Cast them down. A graphic indication of their haste and eagerness.

31. The maimed to be whole. Tischendorf omits this clause. Alford retains it. It does not imply that any missing members were restored. The word rendered maimed signifies literally bent or crooked, and nothing more is necessarily involved than a restoration of vitality to a before useless member, as from paralysis. The word applies particularly to the hands, as the word lame to the feet. In no recorded instance did our Lord create members which were missing. Even his miraculous powers Christ did not put forth, says Olshausen, without internal law or order. In this respect, it may be added, his miracles differ from the mere prodigies of the pseudo wonder-workers. Mark (7:31-37) gives an account of a particular miracle, the healing of one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech.

God of Israel. The Pharisees accused Jesus of blasphemy under a statute (Deut. 13: 1-5) which punished with death all attempts to divert the allegiance of the people from Jehovah to other gods, and subsequently condemned him to death on the ground that he had thus attempted to divert the allegiance of the people to himself. Observe the refutation of his charge here; their reverence for the God of Israel was increased, not lessened. It is still charged that the doctrine of the divinity of Christ leads to idolatry, the substitution of a hero worship for the worship of a Divine Spirit. In fact, Christianity has produced the highest and most intelligent and spiritual worship of the Infinite and Invisible God (compare John 5: 23).

32-39. This miracle of the feeding of the four thousand, not to be confounded with the feeding of the five thousand before described by Matthew, is more fully described by Mark 8:1-9. See notes there. It is not mentioned by the other two Evangelists. The only material variation in the two accounts is in the description of Christ's subsequent departure from the eastern shore. Matthew says he came into the coasts of Magdala, that is, its environs. Mark says he came into the parts of Dalmanutha. Neither place is elsewhere mentioned in the N. T. Magdala or Magadar is undoubtedly identical with the modern El-Mejdel. It is situated on the western coast of the sea of Galilee. See map. It was probably the birth-place, and gave the cognomen to Mary Magdalene, that is, Mary of Magdala. Dalmanutha was either identical with it, being only another name for the same place, or a village in the immediate vicinity.

Ch. 16 1-4. DEMAND OF A SIGN.-OUR DUTY: TO STUDY THE SIGNS OF THE SPIRITUAL SEASONS.-THE ANSWER TO MODERN SKEPTICISM: THE SIGNS OF THE PRESENT TIMES.

Peculiar to Matthew and Mark 8:10-12; fuller here. An analogous demand had been previously made and compliance refused. For there is no reason for identifying this account with that given by Matthew, in chapter 12: 38-40.

He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather; for the sky is red.

3 And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day, for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites! ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?

4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after

a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.

5 And when his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread.

6 Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed, and beware of the leavent of the Pharisees and of the Saddu

cees.

The Jews believed that false gods could work signs on earth, but only the true God could give a sign from heaven. It is not at all strange that the Pharisees and Sadducees should repeat their demand for such a sign, nor that Christ should reply, as before, by referring them to his future resurrection, as typified by the miraculous rescue of Jonah. That this was the second demand of this sort is incidentally confirmed by the touching allusion, in Mark, to the effect which their resolute unbelief produced on the mind of Jesus: He sighed deeply in his spirit. Observe that in Christ, skepticism, even the most obdurate, awoke pity rather than indignation or a spirit of controversy. "He pities and bewails them, as incurably diseased."—(Chrysostom.)

Elijah, and in the miracles wrought for the blessing of the people in fulfillment of such prophecies as that of Isaiah 61: 1-3.

The word miracle in the N. T. is generally a translation of the Greek word (usov) here rendered sign; for the miracle is always a sign or token of the divine presence and power. Observe then two practical lessons to ourselves in Christ's reply here. It is the duty of Christians to study the signs of God's seasons in church and state, and adapt their work accordingly. The answer to modern skepticism is not chiefly the miracles of the past, i. e. the signs of divine power in the first century, but the signs of divine presence and power in our own times. Christ never employs miracles to overthrow unbelief; in employing the argument from them for that purpose we do not use them as Christ used them. Compare note on Matt. 13:58.

I can easily imagine that an early copyist might, with Strauss, think the passage "totally unintelligible;" but I cannot as readily believe that any one should have had the genius to conceive and interpolate it.

Lowering. Gloomy, with an aspect analogous to that of one who lowers his brows in depression or anger. Ye can discern the face of the sky. The Jews were curious in observing the face of the heavens, and the temperature of the air, from which they believed they could discern the prospects of the season. Thus, from the direction which the smoke took on the last day of the feast of the Tabernacles, they undertook to foretell the quantity of the rain for the ensuing year. Signs of the times. The original word (zuig's) rendered times, signifies properly an appointed or set time. It is used in this sense in John the Baptist's preaching, "The time is fulfilled" (Mark 1:15), and in this sense here, Christ's question is, Cannot ye discern the signs or tokens of the time appointed, by symbol and prophet in the O. T., for the coming of the Messiah ?-in the overthrow of the throne of Herod and the subjection of Israel to Rome, in the degradation, political and moral, of the realm, in the coming of John the Baptist in the spirit of

Ch. 16:5-12. WARNING AGAINST THE LEAVEN OF FALSEHOOD.-THE DANGERS OF FALSE TEACHING AND PERNICIOUS INFLUENCE -THE DUTY OF WATCHFUL

SINS AKIN TO EACH OTHER.

Peculiar to Matthew and Mark 8: 13-21. The latter account is more graphic and minute. The same caution against the leaven of the Pharisees was repeated on another occasion. See Luke 12: 1.

5. To the other side. From the western and populous side of the Sea of Galilee to the north-eastern shore. Immediately after this conversation they went, perhaps to get bread, to Bethsaida (Mark 8: 22) which is situated at the entrance of the Jordan into the lake (see map). To take bread. Rather loaves. Mark with characteristic particularity adds that "neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf.” The loaf was a thin cake or cracker, made of flower and water or milk, ordinarily mixed with leaven and left to rise, and baked in the oven. It was generally about a finger's breadth in thickness. Three were not too much for a meal for a single person (Luke 11: 5), and one was considered barely sufficient to sustain life. It is one of these crackers or cakes that is intended by the phrase "morsel" in 1 Sam. 2:36, and "piece" in Jer. 37:21. Two hundred were not a great supply for a company. See 1 Sam. 25: 18; 2 Sam. 16:1. 6. Take heed and beware. A double in

7 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread.

8 Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them," O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread?

9 Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?

10 Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?

11 How is it that ye do not understand, that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?

12 Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

junction. Be on the watch for secret errors and evil influences, and guard yourselves against them. Leaven. This answered to the yeast of modern times. It is in the Bible a symbol of a secret, subtle and pervasive influence; generally of an evil character. Compare 1 Cor. 5:6-8 and notes on Matt. 13:33. Of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. Mark omits of the Sadducees and substitutes of Herod. The Pharisees were the formalists of the first century, the Sadducees the rationalists, the Herodians the unprincipled and worldly politicians. The leaven against which Christ warns his disciples is that of formalism and pretence, of sneering unbelief, and of the craft and cunning of worldliness. Compare his characterization of Herod in Luke 13: 32.

7. They reasoned among themselves, etc. Great care was taken by the Pharisaic canons what leaven was to be used and what not; e. g. whether heathen leaven might be employed, is the subject of rabbinical discussions. The disciples thought that Christ reproved them for their carelessness in forgetting to provide bread, lest they corrupt themselves by using bread mixed with the Pharisees' leaven. The incident indicates the spiritual dullness of the disciples (compare Luke 22:38), and refutes the idea of one school of modern rationalists, that many of the spiritual ideas of the Gospels originated with the Evangelists and were imputed by them to Christ. So far from originating any, they could not even understand his. Observe the indication that, in their ordinary travels, they provided themselves with food, the injunction of Matt. 10:9, 10 being purely temporary in its application; and also that in their travels our Lord depended on the disciples to provide the necessary food for their journey. (Compare John 4:8).

8. Which when Jesus knew. Perhaps from observation, perhaps by that immediate knowledge of the heart of which the N. T. affords so many illustrations (Mark 9: 8; Luke 5: 22; 6:8). O ye of little faith. Observe the implication as to the meaning of the word faith, as Christ uses it. Not here, Ye of small belief, limited creed, or even defective spirit of trust; but Ye of little spiritual perception. Compare for Scripture significance of faith 2 Cor. 4: 18 and Hebrews 11: 1. To this report of Christ's rebuke, Mark makes an important addition. See

Mark 8: 17, 18. He also gives the questions below respecting the two miracles more fully than Matthew. See Mark 8:19-21. Observe the fact indicated in the account there, that the disciples remembered definitely the two miracles, and the exact number of baskets of fragments left, but did not learn their spiritual lessons. A striking illustration of " having eyes, yet seeing not."

9-10. Do ye not understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many traveling baskets (zóquos) ye took up? neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many grain baskets (o¬vgic) ye took up? Observe that Christ distinctly refers to two miracles of feeding; that he discriminates between them by his reference to the "five loaves of the five thousand" and the "seven loaves of the four thousand," and by referring to the different kinds of baskets used. This contrast corresponds exactly to the two accounts (compare notes on Mark 8: 1-10 and John 6: 1-13), and to the recollection of the apostles who (Mark 8: 19-20) respond to Christ's question that in one case they gathered up twelve traveling baskets, in the other seven grain baskets. It is impossible in the face of this testimony to believe that the account of both miracles is derived from the same event, if we attach any credence to the Evangelist's narratives.

The two accompanying illustrations show the difference in kind between the baskets used on the two occasions. The Cophinus is taken from an engraved gem; the Sporta from the statue of a young fisherman in the Royal Neapolitan Museum. The Sporta was commonly used by the Romans as a provision basket; the Cophinus was used by the Jews as a kind of traveling basket. The scholars are not agreed as to which was the larger; perhaps there was no generic difference in size.

11. The best critics give, by a slight change in