>>17946910
2. Even Mark's version isn't quite original, and they're both modifications of an earlier Simonian gospel story that, in a well-disguised way, referred to Simon Magus meeting the prostitute Helena, whom he thought of as his "lost sheep" and who he believed was the reincarnation of Helen of Troy (Or something like that. To the extent that Simon's character can be assigned to some historical person, we know he loved allegories, and beyond that we're getting his ideas through a temporally-distant heresiologist filter.) Bizarre, yes, but there are points in favor it.

One decently strong coincidence on its side is that, in the Illiad, Helen of Troy uniquely refers to herself as a dog not only once but several times (picrel), so, in calling herself a dog, the woman in the story might be understood as indirectly identifying herself with Helen of Troy. And that it seemed like she was denigrating herself when, for those who have ears to hear, she was kinda doing the opposite (Helen of Troy was supposed to be the most beautiful woman ever) is exactly the sort of thing that the irony-loving original author of the gospel which became Mark might've enjoyed writing.

This view might also explain why Matthew's version doubles down on Jesus wanting nothing to do with the woman over Mark, if what happened is that Matthew went overboard trying to "correct" the original story. That might also explain why Matthew apparently felt the need to change her from being a Hellene, as in Mark, to a Canaanite.

For more on that, scroll down to RParvus' comment here https://vridar.org/2025/02/14/not-finding-the-first-jesus-look-for-the-last/

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