Phoenicia was a strip of coastal country at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, between the sea and the Lebanon mountain range. The name comes from the Greek word for "purple," because of a dye which was produced and exported by the Phoenicians. The people themselves were related to the Philistines who lived on the coast farther to the south on the Egyptian border. These people had been called the "Peoples of the Sea" by the Egyptians, since they had invaded the coast in ships from the sea; probably they were Greeks from the isle of Cyprus.

Phoenicia looms large in world history, despite the fact that it is even smaller than Palestine, a narrow corridor stretching only 100 miles from Tripolis to the north to Mount Carmel in the south. But the Phoenicians are acclaimed as the greatest seafarers of ancient times. They sailed as far away as the islands of Britain to bring back tin ores for the manufacture of bronze during the Bronze Age. They sailed even further away to the continent of North America to bring back iron ore for the manufacture of iron tools and weapons, as is proved by the finding of more than one thousand Phoenician implements in the iron mines of Pennsylvania. Even more important than this, perhaps, they were the inventors of the alphabet, a system of writing different from all others, in that the symbols are phonetic instead of pictorial. All the alphabets in the world are descended from this ancient Phoenician alphabet.

Sidon, or Saida which is its modern name, is the oldest of the great Phoenician cities. It lies on the coastal plain about 50 miles north of the sea of Galilee. It was founded by the Peoples of the Sea about 1800 B.C.E. which is also about the time of Abraham, the legendary ancestor of the Hebrews. Today it has a population of about 25,000 and is still an important city of Syria although its harbor has gradually silted up over the centuries.

Tyre, or Tyrus as it was called by the Greeks, was originally a colony of Sidon, founded about 1450 B.C.E. It stands on an island off the coastal plain about 20 miles south of Sidon. Because of its island defenses, Tyre was able to withstand David, and the Assyrian kings, and Nebuchadrezzar himself, remaining unconquered until it fell to Alexander the Macedonian in 332 B.C.E. It has a population today of about 8,000.

There is a dynastic relationship between Tyre and Israel: Ithobaal I was the king of Tyre in 860 B.C.E., and was the father of Jezebel, the wife of Ahab of Israel who was fought by Elijah over Yahvism. Jezebel's daughter Athaliah married Jehoram of Judah who was the seventh king of the Davidic line; so that Jezebel was the grandmother of Ahaziah, the next king over Judah. Thus the king of Tyre became one of the ancestors of all the succeeding kings of the Davidic dynasty.

It was to these cities that Yeshua came after leaving Beth-Saida to avoid the pursuit of Herod. The gospels are not clear on whether Yeshua visited Tyre or Sidon or both. But at this point we might even think that Herod had won and Yeshua had been defeated; Mark says that he stayed at a house and didn't want anyone to know he was there, as if he was in hiding. Mark finishes by saying that "he could not be hid" because even the Phoenicians knew of his reputation and came seeking him. Probably the disciples reported it in this bland way because they did not understand that Yeshua was concerned for his safety from Herod and for theirs as well. Everything in the gospels shows them to have been none too bright.

Only one incident is recorded during Yeshua's stay in Phoenicia. A woman came to him in his place of hiding and pleaded with him to come and cure the mental disturbance in her daughter. She is reported to have been a Syrophoenician by race and for some reason Yeshua apparently refused at first. This is surprising; earlier Mark told us that they came from Idumea in the south and Tyre and Sidon in the north, having heard of him, and he healed many. We have also heard how he healed the servant of a Roman centurion and praised his faith. What he probably said was something like this:

Matthew reports Yeshua as saying to the woman when she first came to him, "I was not sent but to the lost sheep of Israel." Now this statement is consistent with the two earlier ones which Matthew reported as part of the instructions to the disciples for their tour, but is equally inconsistent with all of his other teaching. Possibly the phrases about the "lost sheep" grew out of his quotation from the books of Numbers and Ezekiel, that the people appeared to him like sheep without a shepherd, especially after the death of Yohanan, who had been their great shepherd. Or else Yeshua realized that he had first to reach all of his own countrymen before he could expect to convince any other peoples.

I   do not think, however, that Yeshua meant to stay in Tyre permanently, nor to exile himself from Galilee. Probably he needed time to take stock of his mission and to think out his next steps, as well as to defuse the friction which he had aroused in Herod and the religious leaders. No more could he have deserted his eager followers forever than Socrates could have accepted banishment from Athens, going abroad, as he put it, in order that he might get a dinner. So, although we do not hear any more about his stay in Phoenicia, we can be sure that he was merely biding his time, waiting until he was sure that it was time for him to return and recommence his teaching.