Χαναναία : the Phoenicians were descended from a colony of Canaanites, the original inhabitants of Palestine, Genesis 10:15 (vide Benzinger, Heb. Arch., p. 63). Vide notes on Mk. ἐλ. με, pity me, the mother's heart speaks. υἱὲ Δ. The title and the request imply some knowledge of Jesus. Whence got? Was she a proselyte? (De Wette.) Or had the fame of Jesus spread thus far, the report of a wonderful healer who passed among the Jews for a descendant of David? The latter every way likely, cf. Matthew 4:24. There would be some intercourse between the borderers, though doubtless also prejudices and enmities.

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Old Testament