Matthew 15

Matthew 15 belongs to the latter part of Jesus' Galilean ministry. After Matthew 14 closes with Jesus walking on the water and healing the sick at Gennesaret, this chapter moves through a dispute over ritual purity, the plea of a woman from Gentile territory, and the feeding of the four thousand. Mark 7 and the opening of Mark 8 record the same material.

Outline

• Verses 1–9 Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem object that the disciples eat bread without washing their hands, appealing to the tradition of the elders (regulations handed down through the generations). Jesus rebukes their tradition, which used the formula "It is a gift" to evade the commandment to honor one's parents, and quotes the prophecy of Isaiah.
• Verses 10–11 Jesus teaches the crowd that it is not what goes into the mouth but what comes out of it that defiles a person.
• Verses 12–14 When the disciples report that the Pharisees were offended, Jesus answers that every plant His heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up, and that they are blind leaders of the blind.
• Verses 15–20 When Peter asks for an explanation, Jesus explains that evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, and blasphemies proceed from the heart and defile a person, whereas eating with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.
• Verses 21–28 In the region of Tyre and Sidon, a Canaanite woman whose daughter is possessed by a demon cries out, "O Lord, thou Son of David." Jesus at first gives no answer and then says that it is not right to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs. When the woman replies that even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table, He commends her faith, and her daughter is healed from that very hour.
• Verses 29–31 On a mountain beside the Sea of Galilee, Jesus heals the lame, the blind, the mute, and others, and the crowd glorifies the God of Israel.
• Verses 32–39 Jesus feeds a crowd that has been with Him for three days, using seven loaves and a few small fish. Four thousand men ate, besides women and children, and seven baskets of leftover pieces were gathered. Jesus then departs by boat to the region of Magadan.

Key Verses

• Matthew 15:8 "This people … honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me." Quoting Isaiah 29 (29:13), this verse criticizes piety that has been reduced to mere form.
• Matthew 15:11 "Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man." This is the chapter's central teaching, shifting the standard of purity from outward ritual to the heart.
• Matthew 15:28 "Great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt." With these words Jesus commends the Gentile woman's faith.

People and Places

• Jesus Christ
• Pharisees and scribes: members of the Jewish leadership who strictly observed the Law and traditional regulations.
• Peter
• The Canaanite woman: a Gentile woman from the region of Tyre and Sidon. Mark describes her as "a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation"; she is treated in the article Syrophoenician Woman.
• Isaiah the prophet: his prophecy is quoted in verses 7–9.
• Tyre and Sidon: Phoenician port cities on the Mediterranean coast northwest of Galilee, located in Gentile territory.
• Magadan: a place on the shore of the Sea of Galilee whose exact location is uncertain. Some manuscripts are reported to read "Magdala."

Points for Reflection

• Food laws: Mark 7:19 includes an explanatory remark that Jesus declared all foods clean (KJV: "purging all meats"), whereas Matthew concludes with the question of handwashing. Most Protestants hold, on the basis of this passage and Acts 10, that the Old Testament food laws are not binding on Christians. The Seventh-day Adventist Church, by contrast, observes the distinction between clean and unclean animals in Leviticus 11 and reads this passage as concerning the custom of handwashing.
• The word "dogs": Interpretations vary. Some read the remark as a test intended to draw out and display the woman's faith; others note that the original term refers to small household dogs, which makes the expression less harsh. Still others see it, together with verse 24 and Matthew 10 (10:5–6), as reflecting the order in which the gospel was to go first to Israel, a movement that widens to all nations in the Great Commission of Matthew 28.
• The feeding of the four thousand: Because Jesus refers to the feeding of the five thousand and this event separately in Matthew 16 (16:9–10), the text treats them as two distinct events. Some scholars, however, regard them as a single tradition transmitted in two forms. Some interpreters identify this crowd as Gentiles or assign symbolic meaning to the seven baskets, but the text does not state these things directly. See the article Feeding of the Four Thousand for further detail.

In the Korean Church

The account of the Canaanite woman is frequently used as a sermon text on persevering prayer and humble faith. The saying in verse 14 about the blind leading the blind is also quoted as a proverb outside the church.