What defiles: tradition, the heart and a Canaanite woman's faith in Matthew 15

Matthew 15 belongs to the Gospel traditionally attributed to the apostle Matthew, the tax collector. Many scholars hold that an unnamed Jewish Christian wrote it in Greek, probably in the 80s, and others argue for an earlier date. Its first readers were most likely Jewish-Christian congregations that also had Gentile members, and chapter 15 speaks directly to both: it asks what purity means for those who follow Jesus, and it shows him responding to a Gentile in need.

The chapter follows Mark 7:1 to 8:10 closely. The handwashing dispute is in Mark 7:1-23, the Syrophoenician woman in Mark 7:24-30, a healing of a deaf man in Mark 7:31-37 and the feeding of the four thousand in Mark 8:1-10. Most scholars, who hold that Matthew used Mark, note several changes. Matthew omits Mark's explanations of Jewish washing customs, which suit Gentile readers, and omits Mark's comment that Jesus 'declared all foods clean' (Mark 7:19). He ends the dispute with a statement about unwashed hands only. He calls the woman a Canaanite where Mark has a Greek, Syrophoenician by birth, and he adds her address to Jesus as 'Son of David' and Jesus' statement that he was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. He also gives a summary of healings in place of Mark's single healing.

The setting is Galilee and then the north. The Pharisees and scribes who come from Jerusalem are official inquirers, perhaps checking the reports about Jesus. The 'tradition of the elders' refers to the body of teaching about how to keep the Law, which was handed down orally. It was later written down in the Mishnah, around AD 200. Scholars debate how widely the ritual washing of hands before meals was practiced among ordinary Jews before AD 70.

The first half of the chapter is controversy narrative with teaching. Jesus is accused, he counters with Scripture, he teaches the crowd and then explains to the disciples. The key rule is to see what Jesus is and is not arguing. He does not reject the written Law. He appeals to it against a human tradition that has made it void. The Law had commanded washing for priests (Exodus 30:17-21) and for particular uncleanness, but not the handwashing the elders required of all before eating. The issue is the authority of human tradition when it conflicts with God's command.

• The second half moves from teaching to action, and the chapter is arranged so that the teaching on the heart (verses 10-20) is followed by a story of faith in a Gentile (verses 21-28).
• The first shows what defiles; the second shows who comes near. Both shift attention from ritual boundaries to the heart.

The encounter with the Canaanite woman needs particular care. The dialogue is sharp, and Jesus appears to refuse her three times: by silence, by saying he was sent only to Israel's lost sheep, and by the saying about children and dogs. It is read in the light of what happens: he heals her daughter and commends her faith. Interpreters see a test that draws out her faith and a stage in God's order, Israel first and then the nations, which Paul states in Romans 1:16. Matthew's reader already knows that the Gospel ends with a commission to all nations (28:19).

Verses 1–9

Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem ask why the disciples break the tradition of the elders by not washing their hands before they eat. Jesus answers with a question: why do they break the command of God for the sake of their tradition? He cites the fifth commandment, 'Honor your father and mother', and the penalty from Exodus 21:17, 'Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.' Then he describes a practice. A person could declare his property to be 'a gift devoted to God', which was understood to place it beyond use by others, so that he could not use it to support his parents. Mark calls it 'Corban'. Jesus says this nullifies the word of God. He calls them hypocrites and says Isaiah prophesied rightly of them: 'These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.' The quotation is from Isaiah 29:13, in a form close to the Greek Old Testament. Hypocrite (hypokrites) originally meant an actor, one playing a part.

Verses 10–20

Jesus calls the crowd and says, 'A man is not defiled by what enters his mouth, but by what comes out of it.' The disciples tell him the Pharisees were offended. He answers that every plant his heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up, and calls the Pharisees blind guides. Peter asks for an explanation. Jesus is surprised that they do not yet understand: food goes into the stomach and out. What comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and defiles. He lists evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony and slander, which follow the second table of the Ten Commandments. He concludes: 'These are what defile a man, but eating with unwashed hands does not defile him.' Mark adds that Jesus declared all foods clean (Mark 7:19). Matthew leaves the conclusion on the question that began the dispute.

Verses 21–28

Jesus withdraws to the district of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman cries out, 'Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is miserably possessed by a demon.' Canaanite is an old name, used in the Old Testament for Israel's enemies. She uses the title of the Messiah, a Gentile calling Israel's king by his Israelite title. Jesus does not answer a word. The disciples urge him to send her away. He says he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. She kneels and says, 'Lord, help me!' He says it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs. The Greek word for dogs is a diminutive, commonly taken to mean little house dogs, which softens the image but not the point. She answers, 'Yes, Lord, even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table.' She accepts the order, Israel first, and still asks for mercy. Jesus says, 'O woman, your faith is great! Let it be done for you as you desire.' Her daughter is healed from that hour. Elsewhere in Matthew, only the centurion's faith is called great (8:10), and he too is a Gentile.

Verses 29–31

Jesus returns to the Sea of Galilee and sits on a mountain. Crowds bring the lame, blind, crippled, mute and many others, and he heals them. The crowd glorifies 'the God of Israel'. The list of the mute speaking, the lame walking and the blind seeing echoes Isaiah 35:5-6. The phrase 'God of Israel' may suggest that many in the crowd were Gentiles who now give praise to Israel's God.

Verses 32–39

Jesus has compassion on a crowd that has been with him three days with nothing to eat. The disciples ask where they could get enough bread in a desolate place, though they have already seen the feeding of five thousand. Jesus asks how many loaves they have. Seven and a few small fish. He has the crowd sit, gives thanks, breaks the loaves and fish, and gives them to the disciples to give to the people. Seven baskets of pieces remain. Four thousand men are fed besides women and children. Jesus then goes to the region of Magadan, a place whose location is uncertain; Mark has Dalmanutha. The two feedings differ in numbers, in the kind of basket and in the setting, and Jesus later refers to both separately (16:9-10). Some interpreters see the first as for Jews (twelve baskets) and the second as for a wider, mixed crowd (seven baskets), though Matthew does not say so.

Several doctrines are at work.

• The first is the authority of God's word over human tradition. Jesus does not reject all tradition, but he holds that no tradition can overrule a command of God, a principle that runs through the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 4:2) and the New (Colossians 2:8).
• The second is the nature of sin and purity. Sin is located in the heart. The prophets had already said this (Jeremiah 17:9; Ezekiel 36:26), and Jesus applies it: what defiles is what comes from within, as the list of vices shows. The Old Testament purity laws are not here called wrong, but the real source of uncleanness is traced to the heart.

• The third is the extension of salvation to the nations. The pattern of Israel first and then the nations is the Bible's own order, and the woman's faith shows what the promise to Abraham that all nations would be blessed (Genesis 12:3) looks like in a single case.
• The fourth is the nature of faith: persistent trust that takes God at his word and asks for mercy.
• The fifth is God's care for the body. Jesus heals and feeds, and his compassion extends to hunger and sickness as well as sin.

The chapter shows Jesus acting with authority above that of the elders and even of the interpretation of the Law itself. He applies Isaiah 29:13 to the leaders of his day, and in this Matthew sees a fulfilment: the prophet's charge of lip-only worship now lands on the people standing in front of Jesus. His teaching that defilement comes from the heart is given on his own authority. He teaches as one who knows what is in the heart (compare 9:4; 12:25).

The woman's address 'Son of David' is a true confession of Jesus' identity. The Gospel opens with him as the son of David (1:1), and the title is repeated by the blind men (9:27; 20:30-31). In this chapter it is used by a Gentile, and Jesus answers her faith with mercy. His reply that he was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel repeats what he said to the twelve (10:5-6) and reflects the shepherd's mission to Israel. His mercy to the Canaanite woman points ahead to the commission to make disciples of all nations (28:19).

The healings in verses 30-31 echo the signs of the coming of God in Isaiah 35:5-6, the same passage Jesus used to answer John (11:5). The feeding of the four thousand repeats the pattern of chapter 14. Taking bread, giving thanks, breaking and giving shows the same Lord who provides and prepares for the Last Supper. Matthew's two feeding accounts show that the same compassion reaches both the crowds of Israel and, in the region of Tyre and Sidon, the nations.