KJV: But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs.
YLT: and he answering said, 'It is not good to take the children's bread, and to cast to the little dogs.'
Darby: But he answering said, It is not well to take the bread of the children and cast it to the dogs.
ASV: And he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs.
| Ὁ | - |
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Parse: Article, Nominative Masculine Singular Root: ὁ Sense: this, that, these, etc. |
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| ἀποκριθεὶς | answering |
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Parse: Verb, Aorist Participle Passive, Nominative Masculine Singular Root: ἀποκρίνομαι Sense: to give an answer to a question proposed, to answer. |
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| εἶπεν | He said |
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Parse: Verb, Aorist Indicative Active, 3rd Person Singular Root: λέγω Sense: to speak, say. |
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| ἔστιν | it is |
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Parse: Verb, Present Indicative Active, 3rd Person Singular Root: εἰμί Sense: to be, to exist, to happen, to be present. |
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| καλὸν | right |
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Parse: Adjective, Nominative Neuter Singular Root: καλός Sense: beautiful, handsome, excellent, eminent, choice, surpassing, precious, useful, suitable, commendable, admirable. |
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| λαβεῖν | to take |
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Parse: Verb, Aorist Infinitive Active Root: λαμβάνω Sense: to take. |
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| ἄρτον | bread |
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Parse: Noun, Accusative Masculine Singular Root: ἄρτος Sense: food composed of flour mixed with water and baked. |
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| τῶν | of the |
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Parse: Article, Genitive Neuter Plural Root: ὁ Sense: this, that, these, etc. |
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| τέκνων | children |
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Parse: Noun, Genitive Neuter Plural Root: τέκνον Sense: offspring, children. |
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| βαλεῖν | to cast [it] |
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Parse: Verb, Aorist Infinitive Active Root: βάλλω Sense: to throw or let go of a thing without caring where it falls. |
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| τοῖς | to the |
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Parse: Article, Dative Neuter Plural Root: ὁ Sense: this, that, these, etc. |
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| κυναρίοις | dogs |
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Parse: Noun, Dative Neuter Plural Root: κυνάριον Sense: a little dog. |
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Greek Commentary for Matthew 15:26
Bengel observes that while Christ spoke severely to the Jews, he spoke honorably of them to those without. Compare John 4:22. [source]
Diminutive: little dogs. In Matthew 15:27, Wyc. renders the little whelps, and Tynd., in both verses, whelPsalms The picture is of a family meal, with the pet house-dogs running round the table. [source]
The children are the masters of the little dogs. Compare Mark 7:28, “the children's crumbs.” [source]
Reverse Greek Commentary Search for Matthew 15:26
Diminutive. See on Matthew 15:26. [source]
See on Matthew 15:26. This would indicate that the little dogs were pet dogs of the children, their masters. [source]
Rev., correctly, the dogs, referring to a well-known party - the Judaizers. These were nominally Christians who accepted Jesus as the Messiah, but as the Savior of Israel only. They insisted that Christ's kingdom could be entered only through the gate of Judaism. Only circumcised converts were fully accepted by God. They appeared quite early in the history of the Church, and are those referred to in Acts 15:1. Paul was the object of their special hatred and abuse. They challenged his birth, his authority, and his motives. “'Paul must be destroyed,' was as truly their watchword as the cry for the destruction of Carthage had been of old to the Roman senator” (Stanley, “Sermons and Lectures on the Apostolic Age”). These are referred to in Phlippians 1:16; and the whole passage in the present chapter, from Phlippians 3:3to Phlippians 3:11, is worthy of study, being full of incidental hints lurking in single words, and not always apparent in our versions; hints which, while they illustrate the main point of the discussion, are also aimed at the assertions of the Judaizers. Dogs was a term of reproach among both Greeks and Jews. Homer uses it of both women and men, implying shamelessness in the one, and recklessness in the other. Thus Helen: “Brother-in-law of me, a mischief devising dog” (“Iliad,” vi., 344). Teucer of Hector: “I cannot hit this raging dog” (“Iliad,” viii., 298). Dr. Thomson says of the dogs in oriental towns: “They lie about the streets in such numbers as to render it difficult and often dangerous to pick one's way over and amongst them - a lean, hungry, and sinister brood. They have no owners, but upon some principle known only to themselves, they combine into gangs, each of which assumes jurisdiction over a particular street; and they attack with the utmost ferocity all canine intruders into their territory. In those contests, and especially during the night, they keep up an incessant barking and howling, such as is rarely heard in any European city. The imprecations of David upon his enemies derive their significance, therefore, from this reference to one of the most odious of oriental annoyances” (“Land and Book,” Central palestine and Phoenicia, 593). See Psalm 59:6; Psalm 22:16. Being unclean animals, dogs were used to denote what was unholy or profane. So Matthew 7:6; Revelation 22:15. The Israelites are forbidden in Deuteronomy to bring the price of a dog into the house of God for any vow: Deuteronomy 23:18. The Gentiles of the Christian era were denominated “dogs” by the Jews, see Matthew 15:26. Paul here retorts upon them their own epithet. [source]
The A.V. omits the article “the dogs.” Compare Philemon 3:2. This was the term of reproach with which the Judaizers stigmatized the Gentiles as impure. In the Mosaic law the word is used to denounce the moral profligacies of heathen worship (Deuteronomy 23:18). Compare Matthew 15:26. Here the word is used of those whose moral impurity excludes them from the New Jerusalem. “As a term of reproach, the word on the lips of a Jew, signified chiefly impurity; of a Greek, impudence. The herds of dogs which prowl about Eastern cities, without a home and without an owner, feeding on the refuse and filth of the streets, quarreling among themselves, and attacking the passer-by, explain both applications of the image” (Lightfoot, on Philemon 3:2). [source]