and he did not insult the Canaanite Woman.\u00a0 I\u2019m writing about this here<\/a>\u00a0at the Catholic Weekly<\/em>:<\/p>\n Understand: I\u2019m not claiming to know for certain the inmost mind and heart of every Canaanite as they sat at home. We simply don\u2019t know what every last Canaanite thought about dogs. Indeed, we don\u2019t know fully what the most famous Canaanite of the entire first century\u2013the Canaanite Woman\u2013thought about dogs,\u00a0which is the point<\/em>. My reader\u2019s entire sweeping, utterly confident narrative is a house of cards. Could it be accurate? Sure. Could it be completely wrong? Yes. After all, some Canaanites did, in fact, respect dogs so much as to give them formal burial. The Canaanite dog cemetery we discussed in\u00a0Part 3<\/a>\u00a0of this series says that not all Canaanites saw them as vermin. Did the Canaanite Woman? We have no certainty.<\/p>\n The point is this: super-confident declarations here are reckless, especially when they lead to this as your main claim:<\/p>\n In this Gospel story, the prepaschal Jesus insults a Canaanite woman requesting healing for her daughter by inferring that she is a \u2018dog\u2019 (Matthew 15:26)\u2013considered vermin by first century Middle Easterners. Actually he begins his insulting stance towards her by ignoring her (Matthew 15:23). In this culture, an unrelated man and woman should not engage socially in public, all the more when the woman is a foreigner. This deed is culturally appropriate but rude and insulting. Furthermore, Jesus explains his behavior ethnocentrically: \u2018I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel\u2019 (Matthew 15:24). There is no obligation to engage in face work in such a context. The woman gives a perfect riposte to Jesus\u2019 challenge, thus making this the only argument in the New Testament that Jesus LOSES. Nevertheless, as a GOOD LOSER, Jesus grants the favor.<\/p>\n This woman will not give up. The crowd and the Twelve look to Jesus. Is it that he is not able to do this? Jesus, the broker of the Patron (the God of Israel) must perform the service\u2026 and he does, saying her loyalty (faith in the Bible) is great. In other words, \u201ctouch\u00e9!\u201d Request granted.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n Much more here.<\/a><\/p>\n My editor include this outtake from Convinced<\/em><\/a>, which I did not know was available at Youtube.\u00a0 That was a fun day yakking with Don Johnson out in the back yard:<\/p>\n