Harmony of the Gospels
Program #262
The text for our lesson is found both in the 15th chapter of Matthew and the
seventh chapter of Mark. We will take note of both of them and will draw from both in
making our comments.
15:21 Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and
Sidon.
15:22 And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and
cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter
is grievously vexed with a devil.
15:23 But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought
him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.
15:24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the
house of Israel.
15:25 Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.
15:26 But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread,
and to cast it to dogs.
15:27 And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall
from their masters’ table.
15:28 Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith:
be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very
hour.
7:24 And from thence he arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon,
and entered into an house, and would have no man know it: but he could not be hid.
7:25 For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit,
heard of him, and came and fell at his feet:
7:26 The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought
him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.
7:27 But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet
to take the children’s bread, and to cast it unto the dogs.
7:28 And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the
table eat of the children’s crumbs.
7:29 And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of
thy daughter.
7:30 And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and
her daughter laid upon the bed.
Where did Jesus Go?
Some controversy exists among biblical scholars as to exactly where Jesus went
in this effort to get a little time away from the shores of Galilee and the press of the
crowds. I am sure you will probably not be surprised to hear that. Matthew 15:21 says
that he went into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon; while Mark 7:24 says that he went into the
borders of Tyre and Sidon. You might have thought that the Greek word used in each of
these instances would be the same but actually it is not. In Mark it is meth-or’-ee-os and
it means bounded alongside, i.e. contiguous, frontier or a border. In St. Matthews
Gospel the Greek word is mer’-os. It is from an obsolete but more primary form of
meiromai and it means a section or allotment, a division or share (literal or figurative,
and in a wide applications). It means coast, course, or craft. Drawing on the meaning
projected by meth-or'- ee-os in mark's account some Bible scholars, the highly regarded
Dr. Alfred Eddersheim among them, have contended that Jesus only traveled a relatively
short distance from Capernaum to the border of Phoenicia, perhaps no more than 12 or 15
miles distance. Phoenicia was, of course, the country where Tyre and Sidon were
located. While the meaning of the Greek word meth-or'-ee-os would certainly allow for
that explanation there are other considerations and make it unlikely. In the first place, if
that were the intent it seems to us the Scripture would say that Jesus traveled to the
border of Phoenicia.
Tyre and Sidon were cities, not countries.
And then, the
connotations of the Greek word and mer'-os in Matthew indicates both a seacoast and
sailing craft. In the eastern borders of Phoenicia favored by Dr. Eddersheim there is no
sea and no place for boats or sailing vessels. A further consideration is a deductive one.
The people saw Jesus and His disciples leaving Capernaum to go to Bethsaida Julias a
few chapters back and they followed them over a distance six to eight miles, possibly as
much as ten. It seems an inescapable concept that if Jesus were traveling twelve miles
north to the nearest border of Phoenicia the people would have followed Him. It is
important to keep in mind, in these kinds of controversies, that Matthew was in the party
of disciples who went with Jesus and Mark was writing this account from things that
have been told to him by others some years later. This is not to suggest in any way that
there is a conflict between what Mark says and what Matthew says, because there is not.
It is to point out rather, that the additional precision that is added by Matthew's account
should bear weight in our minds as to what we are being told. Matthew says they went to
the sea coast where there were water craft and I am impressed with that. Mark does not
say they did not, and I am impressed with that fact also.
The Need for Seclusion and Rest
If anything is plainly evident in these texts, it is that Jesus was harassed,
threatened, pressured, weary, and impatient. He needed to get away, far away, where
there were a change of scenery and relief from the enormous burden that the Great
Galilean ministry had suddenly become.
He needed to walk the sands of the
Mediterranean Sea shore, smell the salt air, feel the balmy wind in His face, and find
some relaxation in a territory where His identity could be kept secret. For these reasons
we take the traditional position of Historic Orthodox Christianity that Jesus traveled to
Tyre and then meandered up the seacoast to Sidon.
How Far Did He Go?
Now that we have resolved the issue of where Jesus went, for our purposes in this
commentary at least, it may be appropriate to ask the question: how far did Jesus go?
The distance that he traveled is a fairly simple issue to deal with, or at least so it
seems to me. There was a relatively high and rugged ridge of mountains just east of
Galilee and Capernaum making travel across undesirable. A fairly well-traveled route
ran from Galilee directly to Tyre that would have been a distance of approximately 40
miles. But that was not the easiest to travel or the most popular route to the seacoast and
we doubt if Jesus went that way. There was a well-traveled trade route from Capernaum
all the way to Jerusalem. About 12 miles south of Capernaum it was intersected by
another trade route that was well-traveled and popular coming out of east and destined for
the seacoast at the port of Acco, sometimes known to Bible students as Ptolemais. The
distance from that intersection to the seacoast at Acco was approximately 25 miles. This
road was well known to Jesus since it passed within a few miles of Nazareth to the north
and was the route that He traveled from Nazareth to the Galilee and Capernaum. I
believe this is the way that Jesus went in getting to the coasts of the Mediterranean. From
Acco it was about 25 miles along flat and easy terrain to Tyre. From Tyre it was an
additional 20 miles to Sidon. If this travel agenda was indeed the one that these texts are
intending to indicate to us, and we are taking the position that it was while realizing that
these details are not crucial to the message, then Jesus traveled between 60 and 65 miles
to get to Tyre and the additional 20 miles to Sidon would have made the terminus point
of this particular journey 80 85 miles from Capernaum where He started out.
How Long did the Journey Take?
How long did this journey take? For the first part of it, from Capernaum to Tyre
and, we can give a reasonably accurate answer. Bear in mind that Jesus was trying to get
away and get some rest and He certainly was not in a hurry. Given that circumstance, we
would suppose that Jesus and His party traveled no more than 2 miles an hour for 12
hours a day. If they left Capernaum in the morning, that would have put them Tyre on
the afternoon of the third day. Of course, we have no way of knowing what time of day
they left Capernaum so we ought to say that Jesus would have arrived in Tyre about 2 1/2
days later. There may have been an additional stopover if they left Capernaum in the
afternoon so it could well have been the fourth day. The point that I am seeking to make
is that in all likelihood it took him around three to four days to get to Tyre.
When He arrived at Tyre He took a house and sought for personal retreat and
seclusion. The Gospel of Mark states plainly that He did not want anyone to know where
He was. How long He was in Tyre before the Greek woman found Him, how long He
stayed in Tyre after that before He went on to Sidon, and how long He was in Sidon
before He went back around the Northeast end of the Galilee into the land of the
Decapolis we simply do not know. Speculation by scholars who think they have any
talent for that sort of thing is that He was on this particular leave about two months. With
that supposition I have no disagreement or confirmation. He was gone for more than just
several days; beyond that I have no clue.
In our last chapter we saw how the pressures were really bearing in Jesus and
making Him testy. It was evident to Him now, after the abortive effort to get away for a
little retreat with His disciples in the hills outside of Bethsaida Julias, that he was not
going to find relief so that He could rest and collect his thoughts as long as He was in
Capernaum and the coasts of the Sea of Galilee. Beside that, it seems likely that He
wanted to get out of the way and observe from afar what Herod Antipas was going to do
and what shape the murderous schemes of the Jews in the Capernaum synagogue, along
with the conspiracy of the Jews sent up from Jerusalem, were going to take. For all of
these reasons Jesus was very clear to His disciples that He did not want His whereabouts
known. How was it then that the Greek woman recognized him and knew where to find
him? Of course we really do not know the answer to that question. It is possible that at
some time during the Great Galilean Ministry she had been in Galilee and had seen Him.
That does not seem to us to be likely but it is certainly possible. A more probable
scenario is that one or more of His disciples let the cat out of the bag, so to speak. It is
very difficult for people, when they know a secret or when they are on a secret mission
and think they are in possession of something very important and interesting to others, to
keep it to themselves. My mother used to have a saying which I thought was right on:
"Don't worry," she would say with mock gravity. "Your secret will be just as safe with
me as it was with you." And then, of course, it is always possible that something sinister
and malicious was involved. Do not forget that from this point on Judas Iscariot is in the
company of the disciples and is now the enemy of Jesus. Judas also had the bag and was
concerned about the ability of Jesus and His disciples to garner money. Perhaps Judas,
for his own reasons, did not want Jesus to get away with being secluded when no one
could find him. He may have resented Jesus' giving that very disappointing explanation
of who He was and what His Kingdom was all about, and just running away from the fall
out. In his own scheming mind he may have thought that if the pressures were kept on
Jesus He might change His mind. Or maybe he felt that if their presence was known the
chance of people making significant contributions to the ministry would be enhanced.
These are all things we do not know. What we do know is what Mark tells us: "But He
could not be hid." The secret got out, however it happened, and the Greek woman found
Him. This is one of the more interesting and informative encounters in Jesus' earthly
ministry and we are going to take a careful look at it in the next chapter.