Bible Strands
Matthew 15:26
But Jesus replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jesus addresses a Canaanite woman who has just knelt before Him begging for help.
The words — ἀποκριθεὶς (apokritheis) and καλὸν (kalon) carry the core of the statement, literally meaning “answering” and “right” or “good.”
The thread — The same household metaphor appears in Mark 7:27, while Matthew 7:6 uses “dogs” in a warning about holy things, and Philippians 3:2 applies the term to false teachers without any bread or crumbs imagery.
Why it lands — The text records Jesus drawing a strict boundary between the children and the dogs, forcing the woman to name her own position in the metaphor before receiving aid.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs.
Cross-references
- Mark 7:27 “First let the children have their fill,” He said. “For it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
- Matthew 7:6 Do not give dogs what is holy; do not throw your pearls before swine. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.
- Philippians 3:2 Watch out for those dogs, those workers of evil, those mutilators of the flesh!
- Ephesians 2:12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
- Galatians 2:15 We who are Jews by birth and not Gentile “sinners”
- Acts 22:21 Then He said to me, ‘Go! I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’”
- Romans 9:4 the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory and the covenants; theirs the giving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises.
- Revelation 22:15 But outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.