Syrophoenician
Syrophoenician [1]
sı̄´ro - fḗ - nish´an , sir - ṓ - ( Συροφοίνισσα , Surophoinissa , Συροφοινίκισσα , Surophoinı́kissa ; Westcott and Hort, The New Testament in Greek has variant Súra Phoinikissa ; the King James Version Syrophenician ): The woman from the borders of Tyre and Sidon whose daughter Jesus healed is described as "a Greek, a Syrophoenician by race" ( Mark 7:26 ), and again as "a Canaanitish woman" ( Matthew 15:22 ). This seems to mean that she was of Canaanite descent, a native of the Phoenician seaboard, Greek in religion, and probably also in speech. The names Syria and Phoenicia are both applied to the same region in Acts 21:2 , Acts 21:3 . Syrophoenician may therefore denote simply an inhabitant of these parts. According to Strabo (xvii. 3), this district was called Syrophoenicia to distinguish it from the North African Lybophoenicia.
