Matthew 15 - Introduction

CHAPTER 15.

WASHING OF HANDS; SYROPHŒNICIAN WOMAN; SECOND FEEDING.

The scene changes with dramatic effect from phenomenal popularity on the eastern shore, and in Gennesaret, to embittered, ominous conflict with the jealous guardians of Jewish orthodoxy and orthopraxy. The relations between Jesus and the religious virtuosi are becoming more and more strained and the crisis cannot be far off. That becomes clear to Jesus now, if it was not before (Matthew 16:21).