The Taming of the Canaanite Woman: Constructions of Christian Identity in the Afterlife of Matthew 15:21-28

by Nancy Klancher

Overview

Current reception histories emphasize the world of Biblical readers, their socio-historical contexts, and the myriad effects of Biblical exegesis. This reception history studies interpretations of Jesus’ encounter with a Canaanite woman (Matt 15:21–28) as normative “scripts” that exhort specific types of compliance in a broad range of historical and cultural settings, revealing remarkably diverse understandings of Christian identity and community.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783110321067
Publisher:	De Gruyter
Publication date:	09/17/2013
Series:	Studies of the Bible and Its Reception (SBR) , #1
Pages:	327
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.06(h) x 0.04(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Nancy Klancher, Bridgewater College, Bridgewater, VA, USA.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

A Genealogy for Reception History 3

Bedrock Concerns: Exegetical Credibility, Context, Function, and Reader 4

More Recent Developments Within Reception Studies 9

The Old and the New 10

Then and Now 22

Theory of Reception in this Reception History 27

Technologies of the Christian Self: Anathema, Exemplum, and Identity 35

Organization of Readings 39

Note on Translations 43

Rapitur Christus: Becoming Christians 44

An Apocryphal Tradition and a Jewish-Christian Canaanite Woman 44

Early Polemical Interpretation: Tertullian and Christian Orthodoxy 48

Early Christian Commentary: Exegesis as Catechesis and Paranesis 54

Origen: In Matthaeum 55

Hilary of Poitiers: In Matthaeum 58

Hilary of Poitiers: Tractatus Mysteriorum 62

Ephrem of Nisibis: Commentary on the Gospel 64

Didymus the Blind: In Zacharium 71

Jerome: Commentarium in Matthaeum 74

Quodvultdeus: Liber promissionum et praedictorum Dei 76

Conclusion 80

Sermons and Homilies: Textual Communities and the Call to Lived Narrative 82

Ambrose: Easter Sermon and Sermon on Dives and Lazarus 82

Augustine: Sermon 77 and Sermon 121 88

John Chrysostom: Homily 52 94

Conclusion 100

Necessary Others in Matthew 15:21-28: Race, Class, and Gender 102

The Racial-Ethnic Other: Adversus Judaeos 102

Ishodad of Merv: Commentary on Matthew 102

Theophylact: Exposition of the Gospel of Matthew 103

Chrysostom: Adversus Judaeos and Homiliae in Matthaeum 104

Epiphanius Scholasticus: Interpretatto Evangeliorum 104

John Hutton: The Proposal of Jesus 105

Hugh Martin: Jesus and the Gentile Dogs 107

The Female Other: Mulieres Homines Non Esse 113

Gil Vicente: Auto da Cananeia 114

Anon: Mulieries homines non esse; Simon Gedik: Defensus sexus mulieribus; Arcangela Tarabotti: Che le donne siano delta spezie degli uomini 121

William lay: Lectures on Female Scripture Characters 135

John Pilch: Jesus in His Middle-Eastern Context 142

Clay Nelson: messiahs are from mars; syrophoenician women are from venus 144

Anon: Encuentros con Jesus 145

Loren Rossen: The Shameless Hussy of Mk 7:24 -30/Mt 15:21-28 146

Steven Kurtz: Notes on This Week's Lectionary Text 147

The Impoverished Other: Masters, Men, and Mothers 148

H. H. Carlisle: The Cry of the Children 148

Conclusion 152

Transforming Selves: Reversal, Μετανοια, and Spiritual Ascent 153

The Soul Encounters the Divine 153

Anon: Two Anomoean Homilies 154

Jerome: Vita Hilarionis 159

Human Faith, Ascetical Striving, and Divine Grace 164

Plumbing the Canaanite Heart. John Cassian: Conlationes patrum in scetica eremo 168

Isaiah of Scetis: Logo! 172

Barsanuphius of Gaza: Letter to a Wounded Monk 175

Medieval Monastics and Mystics: Human Sinner, Holy Community, and Spiritual Ascent 179

Anon: Rule of the Master within Benedict of Aniane's Codex Regularum 179

Bernard of Clairvaux: Sermons 22 and 66 186

Guerric D'lgny: Fourth Sermon on the Assumption of the Blessed Mary 191

Julien of Vézelay: Sermon 17 194

Guigues Le Chartreux: Scala Claustralium 197

Richard Rolle: Melos Amoris 202

Gregory of Palamas: 43^rd Homily 205

Conclusion 209

"Not the Gift but the Giver:" Protestant Readers from the Reformation to the Early 20^th Century 211

Luther and Calvin 211

Martin Luther: Predigt am Sonntag Reminiscere and Auss den andern Sontag nun der fasten Euangelion 214

John Calvin: Commentarius in Harmoniam Evangelicam 219

British and American Protestants Interpret the Canaanite Woman 230

John Trapp: Commentary on the Old and New Testaments 231

Matthew Poole: Annotations on the Holy Bible 234

Adam Clarke: The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments 236

Francis Augustus Cox: What Christianity Has Done for Women 240

Phillips Brooks: The Silence of Christ 245

Conclusion 250

Avatars of the Canaanite Woman: Lived Narratives or Rhetorical Performances? 251

Claiming the Canaanite Woman's Wisdom and Authority 253

Dhuoda of Septimania: Manual For My Son 253

Communal Identification through Prayer 259

Anon: Book of Hours of Sinai 259

Thomas Cranmer: Anglican Prayer of Humble Access 263

The Canaanite Woman in "Private" Prayer 266

Gregory of Narek: Book of Lamentations 266

Anglican Devotional Texts 270

Thomas Bentley: The Monument of Matrones 271

Anne Wheathill: A handfull of holesome (though homelie) hearbs 273

Conclusion 276

Epilogue 278

Appendix 287

The Many Faces of the Canaanite Woman 287

Bibliography 297

Index 310