I am doing a Bible study on Matthew and I noticed that in Matthew 15:21-28 the text calls the non-Jewish woman who wanted Jesus to heal her daughter a Canaanite. 

In the Gospel of Mark 7:26 this same woman is called a Syrophoenician.

What exactly is a Syrophoenician?

Yours truly,

Mrs. O. B. Scura

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Dear Mrs. Scura,

A Syrophoenician is a Canaanite......  Just kidding!  

Actually, your question is quite interesting. 

At the time of Christ the area of southern Turkey, parts of northern Palestine/Israel and Syria were all the Roman province of Syria, and the southern part of the province of Syria was referred to as Phoenician Syria.

The woman in question was from that area.

What you've stumbled on here is a clue to the origins of the Gospels.

The Holy Spirit is the underlying author of the Gospel, but He used human authors to do the writing and the Gospels are wonderfully full of the humanity of the authors, while at the same time being divinely inspired. I am always amazed that people don't understand this. 

The word of God became fully human in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. He was 100% God and 100% man. Not half and half, not some of this and some of that. People want their religion pure but what they get is the Incarnation. 

You know people who say that they aren't into religion, they are into spirituality? 

Well, the devil is into spirituality. The devil is pure spirit. 

God has taken flesh to Himself in the person of Jesus, Son of God, and Son of Mary. And guess what? That means the church and the Gospels are full of humanity because God so loves humanity.... 

Once again, I digress. Back to the question.

The terms Canaanite and Syrophoenician give us some clue to the authors and the audiences of Matthew and Mark. Papias, a bishop of Hieropolis (Pamukkale, Turkey) writing about 100-150 AD, says that Mark was a coworker with Peter, and wrote down Peter's remembrances of the Lord and that Matthew wrote the “oracles of the Lord” in the Hebrew language. 

Mark addressed himself to Greek speakers for whom much of today's Israel/Palestine was the Roman province of Syria. 

Matthew addresses his work to Jews for whom the people around Tyre and Sidon were the remnants of the Canaanites who inhabited the land before the Exodus. 

What's the point? 

In reading the Scripture one must remember that God speaks to people in words they can understand. Even absolute truths must be spoken in a language that can be understood.

Thanks for the interesting question,

Rev. Know-It-All