FOLLOWING THE CRUMBS: REVISITING THE AUTHENTICITY OF JESUS’S ENCOUNTER WITH THE SYROPHOENICIAN WOMAN.

Scholars have raised doubts concerning the authenticity of Mark’s account of Jesus’s encounter with the Syrophoenician woman. Gerd Theissen presents a formidable argument in favor of the story’s historical core in light of the historical context of the encounter, a context many scholars have tended to accept. However, there have been significant advances in Galilee studies since the publication of his survey nearly thirty years ago, thus prompting a reevaluation of the historical, social, and economic relations between Upper Galilee and Tyre. Additionally, an analysis of the historical background embodies only one aspect of an assessment of a Gospel narrative’s authenticity. In order to establish the story’s essential historicity, the present study will offer a holistic analysis of Mark 7:24–30, first considering the historical background of the narrative, then discussing Jesus’s aphorism in Mark 7:27, and finally reviewing the exorcism attributed to Jesus. For this analysis, different criteria of authenticity will be employed to assess the story. This study concludes that when the encounter is assessed holistically, the degree of probability for its authenticity increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]