Puppies Under the Table

#biblestudy #newtestamentgreek
Mark 7: 24-30 is parallel to Matthew 15: 21-28

There is some significant differences between the two passages but most of those can be attributed perhaps to the authors wishing to emphasis certain details in a different way.

Marks Version calls the mother a Greek woman who was also Syrophoenician but basically that probably just means she was a Greek speaker from the area we call Lebanon today. Matthew says Canaanite but what both mean is that she was not Jewish.

Both writers agree Jesus had travelled over the border into the area around Tyre and Sidon.
Somehow despite him being on a retreat or some kind of rest this woman found out he was in the area and where he was stying and approached him begging for help for her daughter.

Both agree he says

"Let first the children be fed for it is not a good thing to take the bread from the children and to the puppies / house dogs throw it.

Note both passages use kunarion for dog that implies some kind of house dog or pet since the dogs are described by the woman in her reply as being under the table.

Now in Matthew the woman is praised for her faith but Mark says Jesus also said he was helping her to giving him an intelligent sensible answer

This was a woman perhaps known to have kept pet dogs, perhaps a widow, perhaps even a woman who took in stray puppies and made them pets? 
In Matthew we get the impression the disciples and had told her to stop making a noise and go away.
Had one of them called her a female dog because she was not jewish?
Had an act of bullying drawn Jesus' attention?

And note the implied contrast between the Children (of Israel) and the puppies.

The Children were fed first and threw part of the bread they had been given to the dogs.
but the dogs also deserve to be fed and I think if that woman's house the crumbs and scraps were whole chunks of bread maybe soaked in meat juices?

Faith and action and reason making together to make a healing.

There's also a nice variety of verb and noun forms in various moods and declensions and cases and tenses you can use if you're a teacher !