Matthew 15:21-28: Jesus the Hope for the “Othered” Woman:
Introducing the CBS
Studying the Bible with Methodist and Uniting Churches’ Women
Friday 12 August 2011
Indaba Hotel, South Africa
Fulata Moyo1
We will study Mathew 15:21-28 together using the Contextual Bible study methodology.
As a brainchild of Liberation Theology, it is an interactive study of a biblical text where
the context of the reader (in our case, this community of Methodist and Uniting
Churches‟ women) will dialogue directly with the story of the so-called Canaanite/Syro-
Phonician woman trusting Jesus for the healing of her daughter). Contextual Bible study
cannot be taught because it is voices and experiences of participants that matters in the
process of awareness raising for transformation/liberation.
There are five key „Cs‟ that summarize this methodology:
1 Community – it is important to receive an invitation from a community. Questions
raised in the course of interpretation are answered by participants themselves.
Sometimes it makes sense to record a process of interpreting according to CBS because it
is always important for participants to know that each of their contribution and
experience is important in this process of change. The bible is read in this community of
women rather than individually. All voices are listened to and critically engaged with.
Critical engagement is used rather than “teaching/lecturing or preaching at.” Sharing
knowledge and resources – both from the women and facilitator.
2 Context – social location of a reader. Two realities, of interpreters and of persons
mentioned in text, are to be taken seriously into account. CBS begins with the reality of
issues of concern within the community that requires the bible study: EG women in the
margins as HIV positive, migrants, refugees, other religions… The theme of a bible study
is chosen from that reality: Christ, our hope! For example, if women are grappling with
the pain and questions of how to deal with the „other‟, we come to the bible looking for
resources that will help us deal with that: how is the „other‟ conceived? What is at stake
with such conceptions? What spiritualities and theologies of hope do we share? This kind
of reading is not an interpretation by an individual but an engagement of all voices with
the text. The process of such an exercise is more important than its product.
1
Fulata Moyo is the current World Council of Churches‟ (WCC) Programme Executive for Women in
Church and Society. She holds a PhD in gender and sexual ethics from School of Religion and Theology,
University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Email: fmm@wcc-coe.org
3 Criticality –How to design a Contextual Bible Study? It has two types of questions:
exegetical (literary or critical consciousness questions that draw on tools from Biblical
studies); Interpretive (community consciousness questions that draw on feelings,
experiences and resources from the community). To formulate questions, the study
facilitator, therefore, uses hermeneutical tools of exegesis (finding meaning of the
biblical text within its historical and social context) and interpretation (reading the
biblical text from the context of the participants/interpreters)? What hermeneutical
principles do we follow?
Hermeneutical tools of exegesis and interpretation are used by the facilitator who forms
that questions as to carter for critical reflection Interpretation is always “located”,
influenced by certain contextual perceptions: during the time this text was written, Tyre
and Sidon were occupied mainly by Greek traders.
There were no longer Cannanites: why does Matthew as a Jewish writer still use
such a terminology?
Notwithstanding the sacred nature of the bible, that the bible was written, read, translated
and interpreted in a time different from our own:
What nature of illness was considered „demon possession‟ and why?
We also note the importance of not just knowing the answers, but asking the right
questions and analytically engaging with the issues raised by the text in dialogue with the
readers‟ realities:
If it were a man who he was dealing with, would Jesus have still used an image of
dog to refer to him? Why?
If a text deals directly with sexual violence, like the Rape of Tamar (2 samuel 13: 1-22)
special interpretive tools must be used.
4 Consciousness – raising awareness about an issue at the heart of the community. The
tendency is to read the Bible with hermeneutics of Trust not suspicion and find solutions
through it. One of the aims of the Contextual BS is to see the Bible as a tool of liberation
but also of oppression. For example, the Bible was used to justify slavery, apartheid and
racism; it is still used to justify the negative implications of the Zionist ideology that
accounts for the Israel‟s occupation of Palestine. One of the aims of CBS is also to
highlight how the bible and other sources of sacred knowledge can be used as both a tool
of liberation and a tool of oppression using certain texts so as to silence questions or
engagement in dialogue.
Where did Jesus take the saying about it not being right to give children‟s food to
dogs?
How would it compare to our today‟s church leadership, for example, using 1
Ephesians 5: 22 (“wives, submit to your husbands”) to silence a wife who is
experiencing violence against women in her home? Or using 1 Corinthians 14:34
so as to silence women who are trying to actualise their equal participation in their
churches‟ ministries?
What hope do the woman‟s response to Jesus and Jesus‟ response to the woman
give to the women in each of the above given examples? Why?
5 Change – interpretation leading to transformation (positive change) of attitude/ mindset
is the goal of any CBS. Once people are made aware of the issues of concern,
transformation is hoped to happen. Transformation happens on various levels.
The ways in which we read the bible is transformed – in other words we learn
how to read the bible in a way that is liberating and inclusive: creating a space
where the biblical stories become alive in the stories of the community.
It is hoped that the bible study can transform us to such an extent that it spurs us
into action for just change in a world that is often unjust and unwilling to change,
especially when it comes to women!
Read Mat 15:21-28 (in English and other languages if need be).
Matthew 15:21-28
21 Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and
Sidon. 22Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and
started shouting, ‘Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my
daughter is tormented by a demon.’ 23But he did not answer her at all.
And his disciples came and urged him, saying, ‘Send her away, for she
keeps shouting after us.’ 24He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel.’ 25But she came and knelt before him,
saying, ‘Lord, help me.’ 26He answered, ‘It is not fair to take the
children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ 27She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet
even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’
28
Then Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done
for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed instantly. (NRSV)
Discussion Questions:
1. What is this story about?
2. What possible themes can you attribute to this story?
3. What are the main characters and what do we know about each one?
4. Why did Jesus compare this woman and her daughter to dogs (v26)? How does
this women respond and why?
5. How much of the Jewish conception of the “Canaanites/Syro-Phonecians” was
based on the real life, culture and beliefs of these people? Why?
6. What words and actions of Jesus became the hope that this woman needed?
7. How “other” is the “other”? What does it take to know the “other”?
8. Do we have women and men we consider the “other” in our communities‟?
9. Who are they? What are their stories/ what do we really know about them?
10. Do we know any resources within our communities that can help address existing
disparities between different races, gender, religions, cultures and political
allegiance?
11. Now that we have done this bible study, what do we plan to do so as to bring hope
to women and girls that have been mistreated as the “other” in our communities?