Bible Dictionary
Syrophoenician
Syrophoenician describes the woman from the region of Tyre and Sidon whom Jesus healed through her daughter’s deliverance. The term indicates her Gentile and Phoenician background within the Roman province of Syria.
Definition
Syrophoenician describes a person from the Phoenician seaboard of Syria. The term may indicate a mixed Syrian-Phoenician identity or simply an inhabitant of Phoenicia within the Roman province of Syria.
Biblical Usage
The woman from the borders of Tyre and Sidon is called a Greek and Syrophoenician by race, and elsewhere a Canaanite woman. Jesus healed her daughter after she appealed to him in faith.
Historical Background
The region was called Syrophoenicia to distinguish it from Phoenician territory in North Africa. The woman was probably Canaanite in descent and Greek in religion and likely in speech.
Scripture References
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Smith's Bible Dictionary
occurs only in (Mark 7:26) The word denoted perhaps a mixed race, half Phoenicians and half Syrians; (or the Phoenicians in this region may have been called Syro-phoenicians because they belonged to the Roman province of Syria, and were thus distinguished from the Phoenicians who lived in Africa, or the Carthaginians.—ED.)
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>si'-ro-fe-nish'-an, sir-o- (Surophoinissa, Surophoinikissa; Westcott and Hort, The New Testament in Greek has variant Sura 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" (Mr 7:26), and again as "a Canaanitish woman" (Mt 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 Ac 21:2,3. 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.</p><p>W. Ewing</p>