Chapter Fifteen - Quick Notes and Facts

• The Pharisees (or at least not all of the Pharisees) were not explicit enemies of Jesus.  However, they were obviously critical of his approach.  Much of their arguing sounds very hostile to us.  However, in the cultural context, disputation is the way that teaching on the Law was refined.  (Even in modern yeshivas, it sounds like a huge fight is going on, but that is just the way that learning takes place.)


• In the Law, there are strict dietary laws and rituals about eating.  (That is why the washing is mentioned.)  Various foods are not kosher and can never by eaten, such as pork and shellfish.  Also, there are rules such as the prohibition of eating milk and meat in the same meal.


• The Canaanites were the original inhabitants of Palestine.  (We also know them as the Phoencians and Palestine is a Latin name for the "Land of the Phoenicians".)  Abraham was called by God to leave his ancestral land (modern Iraq) and settle in the land of Canaan.  The Hebrews returned to Canaan when they escaped slavery in Egypt.  Even though this was the Promised Land, the original population didn't disappear and continued to live right next to the Jews.


• The feeding miracle is such an important story that it reappears.  A repetition like this is called a "doublet."