Duplicate Bible story for February 7, 2010

Recently, it was brought to our attention that the story of the Syrophoenician woman and her encounter with Jesus (Mark 7:24-30), studied on October 18, 2009, has been repeated for February 7, 2010, using the Matthew 15:21-28 version.

The Committee on the Uniform Series (provider of our session outlines) has acknowledged this oversight. In its work of choosing biblical texts, a specific passage is not repeated within a 12-month period. The possibility of repeating the same biblical story from another book of the Bible within one year was not anticipated. The Committee will address this issue in its spring meetings.

This multi-faceted story has many applications. If your group used the Fall 2009 quarter and is now in the current Winter 2009-10 quarter, we recommend the following:

1. Acknowledge the oversight explained above.
2. Use the current lesson plans in Adult Bible Study Teacher, pp. 56-61. We note some variety in the foci of this session (the faith confession of the woman) from the earlier one (persistence in prayer). Revisit briefly the foci you used in the fall, and bridge into others for this lesson. Highlight the new key verse, which is also different.
3. Refer to the ABSOnline article here for February 7, in which Ken Seitz makes some very interesting application to the cross-cultural aspects of Jesus’ ministry.
4. If your class would be interested, do a comparative study of the two texts for Hearing the life-giving Story and Vision. How are they different and the same? What does this mean?

We apologize for the inconvenience caused by this oversight. We trust that the Holy Spirit will guide you and your group in a fruitful revisiting of this very fascinating story about Jesus. Since two of the Gospel writers thought it important to include this story, perhaps we do well to revisit it.

Sharon K Williams, Editor
Adult Bible Study
Faith and Life Resources, Mennonite Publishing Network