Matthew 15:27

27 But she said, Yea, Lord; for even the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from the table of their masters.

Matthew 15:27 Meaning and Commentary

Matthew 15:27

And she saith, truth, Lord
She owns all that he had said to be true, that he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel: that she was indeed but a dog, a poor sinful creature, and unworthy of any favour; and that it was not right and fitting that all the children's bread should be taken from them and given to dogs:

yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table.
The Syriac and Persic versions add "and live": thus she wisely lays hold upon and improves in a very beautiful manner, in her own favour, what seemed to be so much against her. It is observed ^F17 of the Syrophoenicians in general, that they have all, in their common talk, something (hdu kai kecarismenon) "pleasant and graceful", as there is indeed in this smart reply of her's, who was one of that people. She suggests that though the Gentiles were but dogs, and she one of them; yet their common Lord and Master had a propriety in them, and they in him; and were to be maintained and fed, and ought to live, though not in such fulness of favours and blessings, as the Jews, the children of God: nor did she desire their affluence, only that a crumb of mercy might be given her, that her poor daughter might be healed; which was but a small favour, in comparison of the numerous ones he heaped upon the children, the Jews: nor would this be any more detrimental to them, than it is to the children, for the dogs, under the table, to eat of the crumbs that fall.

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FOOTNOTES:

F17 Eunapius in Vita Libanii.

Matthew 15:27 In-Context

25 But she came and did him homage, saying, Lord, help me.

26 But he answering said, It is not well to take the bread of the children and cast it to the dogs.

27 But she said, Yea, Lord; for even the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from the table of their masters.

28 Then Jesus answering said to her, O woman, thy faith [is] great. Be it to thee as thou desirest. And her daughter was healed from *that* hour.

29 And Jesus, going away from thence, came towards the sea of Galilee, and he went up into the mountain and sat down there;

Footnotes

• [a]. Or else we may say 'Yet' here, as admitting the truth, but pleading; nai is used for affirming what is said, but also for beseeching, as, indeed, in English we say, 'Yes, do it.' 'Yet' seems perhaps to express this more clearly, as the admission of what Christ said is thus evident; the 'but' is wanting if we say 'yea.' The Authorized Version avoids the difficulty discussed by all the critics by translating freely, but the 'for even' of the original is lost. 'Yet' thus used gives assent and obsecration, and this seems the force of nai. See Rev. 22.20, 'Amen; come.' If we say 'Truth, Lord,' we must add 'yet:' 'Truth, Lord, [yet hear] for even.' As to nai having this tacitly beseeching character, see Philemon 20, and so it is taken by many. Otherwise nai contradicts the Lord, who had said ouk, and kai gar follows naturally. And I suspect this to be the better sense: 'Yes, Lord, you may do it, for even:' so I have put it in the text.