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CANAANITISH.—The Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 rendering of ×áíáíáßá (Authorized Version ‘of Canaan’) in Mat_15:22 (only here in NT). The word is used to describe the woman who came out of the borders of Tyre and Sidon, desiring to have her daughter healed who was grievously vexed with a devil. St. Mark (Mar_7:26) calls her a Greek ( Ἑëëçíßò ), a Syro-phœnician ( Óõñïöïéíßêéóóá ) by race. A Canaanite, signifying properly ‘dweller in the lowland,’ is used in a wider or a narrower meaning in the OT, Canaan being a name applied either to the strip of seacoast from Gaza to Sidon, or, more loosely, to the whole possession of Israel, or that part which lay west of Jordan (Gen_10:19; cf. Jos_5:1, Num_13:29, Gen_11:31). The LXX Septuagint renders Canaanite ( áְּðַòֲðִé ) indifferently by Öïßíéî and ×áíáíáῖïò (Exo_6:15, Jos_5:1, Num_13:29, (Num_13:30), Jdg_1:30-33, while in Exo_16:35 and Jos_5:12 we find àָøָõ ëְðַòַï translation by ìÝñïò ôῆò Öïéíßêçò and ÷þñá ôῶí Öïéíßêùí . These coast inhabitants being the great traders of the old world, ‘Canaanite’ or ‘Phœnician’ was often used simply to mean ‘a merchant’ (Isa_23:8 [LXX Septuagint ἔìðïñïé ], and cf. Hos_12:7, Zep_1:11).
The woman who came to our Lord was a ‘Canaanite’ in the sense that she belonged to the stock of the old Phœnicians of Syria termed ‘Syro-phœnician’ to distinguish them from those of Africa. These were heathen, and between them and the Jews existed the bitterest hostility; see Josephus circa (about) Apion. i. 13 (who mentions the Phœnicians, especially of Tyre, with the Egyptians as bearing the greatest ill-will towards the Jews). This fact makes instructive a comparison between our Lord’s treatment of this woman and His dealing with the woman of Samaria; cf. especially Joh_4:9 with Mat_15:26. The Clementines (Hom. ii. 19, iii. 73) mention her by the name of Justa, and maintain that the Lord first won her from heathendom, and after that was able to heal her daughter, whose name is given as Bernice.* [Note: ×áíáíáῖïò is to be distinguished Irom Êáíáíßôçò , TR Êáíáíáῖïò (Mat_10:4), which means a Zealot, and is the designation of the Apostle Simon. See Cananaean.]
Literature.—The Commentaries on the Gospels, esp. Swete on Mar_7:26; the articles in Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible and the Encyc. Bibl.; Trench, Miracles, ad loc.; Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, ii. 37ff.; Expos. Times, iv. [1892] p. 80ff.; W. Archer Butler, Serm, i. 155 ff.; Lynch, Serm. to my Curates, p. 317ff.; Ker, Serm., 2nd ser. p. 200ff.; Bruce, Galilean Gospel, p. 154ff.
J. B. Bristow.