Repatriating the Canaanite Woman in the Gospel of Matthew

This study argues that Matthew’s replacement of Mark’s “Gentile of Syrophoenician origin” with a “Canaanite woman” (Mark 7:26; Matt 15:22) is part of a wider narrative strategy to portray the land of Israel and its cities as a new Sodom, a new Canaan, a new Egypt, and a new Babylon. The study employs Dale Allison’s six intertextual devices (explicit statement, inexplicit citation or borrowing, similar circumstances, key words or phrases, similar narrative structure, and word order, syllabic sequence, and poetic resonance) to demonstrate a consistent authorial intention while identifying contemporary or near contemporary sources that would affirm the likelihood that a first-century Christian audience would have noted such an intention.