Language Studies

Difficult Sayings

Let the children first be fed
Matthew 15:24-28; Mark 7:27

"He answered [the Canaanite woman] and said, I am not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then she came and worshipped Him, saying, Lord, help me! But He answered and said, It is not good to take the children's bread and to throw it to dogs. And she said, True, O Lord; but even the little dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' tables. Then Jesus answered and said to her, O woman, great is your faith! So be it to you even as you wish. And her daughter was healed from that very hour." (Matthew 15:24-28 (Mark 6:7-13; Luke 9:1-6) and again uses Jesus' phrase, unique to Matthew, "the lost sheep of the house of Israel". Jesus was indeed sent for all men but not to all men. He is saviour of all but a prophet and minister only unto Israel.

"Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers [the Jews]" (Romans 15:8)

However shocking the verse may seem to us in the West who keep dogs as pets, in the Middle East it was worse still as dogs were considered unclean animals and John uses them as a metaphor for those who remain outside the kingdom in Revelation 22:15. Even the Greeks, in Homer for instance, used 'dog' to describe an uncultured or impudent man.

Jewish sources were also apt to use 'dogs' as a metaphor for the gentiles as in the following parable with striking similarities to Jesus' parables about the king's feast:

"A king provides a dinner for the children of his house; whilst they do his will they eat their meat with the king, and he gives to the dogs the part of bones to gnaw; but when the children of the house do not do the king's pleasure, he gives the dogs the dinner, and the bones to them: even so: while the Israelites do the will of their Lord, they eat at the king's table, and the feast is provided for them, and they of their own will give the bones to the Gentiles; but when they do not do the will of their Lord, lo! the feast is, 'for the dogs', and the bones are theirs."

"'thou preparest a table before me'; this is the feast of the king; 'in the presence of mine enemies'; 'these are the dogs' that sit before the table, looking for their part of the bones."^F1

Also in an earlier midrashic source it is said that, "the nations of the world are likened to dogs"^F2.

It has been suggested that Jesus spoke "not his own mind" (Gill on Matthew 15:26) but rather that of contemporary daily usage, however abrupt, thus echoing the judgements of the Jews upon local gentiles. This indeed, would have shocked the woman less as she would have been expecting just such a reaction from a Pharisee.

David Stern, in a comment entitled "Pet dogs", writes:

"There are two Greek words for "dog": "kuôn," scavenging hounds that roam the streets in packs (7:6, Lk 16:21, Pp 3:2, 2 Ke 2:22, Rv 22:15), and "kunarion," small dogs kept as house pets (only in this passage and its parallel, Mk 7:27-28). Yet even if Gentiles are not here compared with wild snarling beasts, are they still not being insulted? The answer can only be: no more than in the Tanakh itself, where the people of Israel are taken by God in a special way as his children. And although Judaism teaches that the righteous Gentiles of the world have a share in the world to come, this is not a primary focus either in the Tanakh or in rabbinic Judaism."^F3

Much as there is a possible distinction here between two types of dog, the former is clearly insulting whilst the latter, 'pet dogs' or 'puppies' would be patronising.

Whatever the verse means, Jesus had a sense of prophetic timing, and now was 'for the Jews' still, nevertheless he did occasionally minister to gentiles in respect to great faith shown, as a sign of things to come, and, perhaps, to provoke the Jews to jealousy.

In addition, F.F.Bruce^F4 rightly comments that "the written record can preserve the spoken words; it cannot convey the tone of voice in which they were said" or "if there was a twinkle in his eye as he spoke".

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FOOTNOTES:
F1: Zohar in Exodus 63.1, 2. Vid. Tzeror Hammor, 147.4, quoted in Gill on Matthew 15:26. Admittedly a late source but probably quoting an earlier tradition.
F2: Midrash, Tillin, 6.3
F3: Stern, D H, Jewish New Testament commentary : A companion volume to the Jewish New Testament (Clarksville, Md.: Jewish New Testament Publications, 1992). On Mt 15:26.
F4: F.F.Bruce, The Hard Sayings of Jesus, H&S, 1983, p.111

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KJ Went has taught biblical Hebrew, hermeneutics and Jewish background to early Christianity. The "Biblical Hebrew made easy" course can be found at www.biblicalhebrew.com.

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