The Sojourn at Tyre and Sidon

156:1.1There lived near the home of Karuska, where the Mas­ter lodged, a Syr­ian woman who had heard much of Je­sus as a great healer and teacher, and on this Sab­bath af­ter­noon she came over, bring­ing her lit­tle daugh­ter. The child, about twelve years old, was af­flicted with a griev­ous ner­vous dis­or­der char­ac­ter­ized by con­vul­sions and other dis­tress­ing man­i­fes­ta­tions.

156:1.2Je­sus had charged his as­so­ciates to tell no one of his pres­ence at the home of Karuska, ex­plain­ing that he de­sired to have a rest. While they had obeyed their Mas­ter’s in­struc­tions, the ser­vant of Karuska had gone over to the house of this Syr­ian woman, No­rana, to in­form her that Je­sus lodged at the home of her mis­tress and had urged this anx­ious mother to bring her af­flicted daugh­ter for heal­ing. This mother, of course, be­lieved that her child was pos­sessed by a de­mon, an un­clean spirit.

156:1.3When No­rana ar­rived with her daugh­ter, the Al­pheus twins ex­plained through an in­ter­preter that the Mas­ter was rest­ing and could not be dis­turbed; where­upon No­rana replied that she and the child would re­main right there un­til the Mas­ter had fin­ished his rest. Pe­ter also en­deav­ored to rea­son with her and to per­suade her to go home. He ex­plained that Je­sus was weary with much teach­ing and heal­ing, and that he had come to Phoeni­cia for a pe­riod of quiet and rest. But it was fu­tile; No­rana would not leave. To Pe­ter’s en­treaties she replied only: “I will not de­part un­til I have seen your Mas­ter. I know he can cast the de­mon out of my child, and I will not go un­til the healer has looked upon my daugh­ter.”

156:1.4Then Thomas sought to send the woman away but met only with fail­ure. To him she said: “I have faith that your Mas­ter can cast out this de­mon which tor­ments my child. I have heard of his mighty works in Gal­i­lee, and I be­lieve in him. What has hap­pened to you, his dis­ci­ples, that you would send away those who come seek­ing your Mas­ter’s help?” And when she had thus spo­ken, Thomas with­drew.

156:1.5Then came for­ward Si­mon Ze­lo­tes to re­mon­strate with No­rana. Said Si­mon: “Woman, you are a Greek-speak­ing gen­tile. It is not right that you should ex­pect the Mas­ter to take the bread in­tended for the chil­dren of the fa­vored house­hold and cast it to the dogs.” But No­rana re­fused to take of­fense at Si­mon’s thrust. She replied only: “Yes, teacher, I un­der­stand your words. I am only a dog in the eyes of the Jews, but as con­cerns your Mas­ter, I am a be­liev­ing dog. I am de­ter­mined that he shall see my daugh­ter, for I am per­suaded that, if he shall but look upon her, he will heal her. And even you, my good man, would not dare to de­prive the dogs of the priv­i­lege of ob­tain­ing the crumbs which chance to fall from the chil­dren’s ta­ble.”

156:1.6At just this time the lit­tle girl was seized with a vi­o­lent con­vul­sion be­fore them all, and the mother cried out: “There, you can see that my child is pos­sessed by an evil spirit. If our need does not im­press you, it would ap­peal to your Mas­ter, who I have been told loves all men and dares even to heal the gen­tiles when they be­lieve. You are not wor­thy to be his dis­ci­ples. I will not go un­til my child has been cured.”

156:1.7Je­sus, who had heard all of this con­ver­sa­tion through an open win­dow, now came out­side, much to their sur­prise, and said: “O woman, great is your faith, so great that I can­not with­hold that which you de­sire; go your way in peace. Your daugh­ter al­ready has been made whole.” And the lit­tle girl was well from that hour. As No­rana and the child took leave, Je­sus en­treated them to tell no one of this oc­cur­rence; and while his as­so­ciates did com­ply with this re­quest, the mother and the child ceased not to pro­claim the fact of the lit­tle girl’s heal­ing through­out all the coun­try­side and even in Sidon, so much so that Je­sus found it ad­vis­able to change his lodg­ings within a few days.

156:1.8The next day, as Je­sus taught his apos­tles, com­ment­ing on the cure of the daugh­ter of the Syr­ian woman, he said: “And so it has been all the way along; you see for your­selves how the gen­tiles are able to ex­er­cise sav­ing faith in the teach­ings of the gospel of the king­dom of heaven. Ver­ily, ver­ily, I tell you that the Fa­ther’s king­dom shall be taken by the gen­tiles if the chil­dren of Abra­ham are not minded to show faith enough to en­ter therein.”