The Fallible Study Bible

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Mark7:24–30

The Faith of the Gentile Woman

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Mark 7:24–30 — The Faith of the Gentile Woman. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

24

Jesus left that place and went to the region of Tyre. Not wanting anyone to know He was there, He entered a house, but was unable to escape their notice.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de anastas Ekeithen apēlthen eis ta horia Tyrou ēthelen oudena gnōnai Kai eiselthōn eis oikian kai ouk ēdynēthē lathein

Word by word19 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ἀναστὰςanastas[Jesus] leftG450
√ ἀνίστημι — to stand up (literal or figurative, transitive or intransitive)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
anistēmi: to stand up, arise A participle of departure, Mark's ordinary hinge between scenes; it carries no resurrection freight here.
ἘκεῖθενEkeithenthat placeG1564
√ ἐκεῖθεν — thenceAdverb
ἀπῆλθενapēlthen[and] wentG565
√ ἀπέρχομαι — to go off (iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
εἰςeistoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὰtatheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Plural
ὅριαhoriaregionG3725
√ ὅριον — a boundary-line, iNounAccusative Neuter Plural
horion: a boundary line, frontier The word occurs in only eleven verses, and two of them are the frame of this episode (7:24 and 7:31), where the Verifier confirms the shared lexeme. Mark builds a bracket of borders around the one story in which Jesus is asked for mercy by someone outside them. Cambridge reads the journey itself as symbolic geography, the route of the gospel from Jews to Gentiles; Benson, more soberly, reads it as flight from the Pharisees.
ΤύρουTyrouof TyreG5184
√ Τύρος — TyreNounGenitive Feminine Singular
ἤθελενēthelenNot wanting anyoneG2309
√ θέλω — to determine (as an active option from subjective impulseVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
thelō: to will, to determine Imperfect: he kept on wanting it. JFB and Cambridge give the reason as avoidance of Pharisaic and Herodian pressure; Ellicott and Barnes say the same. Gill adds a second motive, that a Gentile crowd would inflame Jewish resentment. Whatever the cause, Mark reports a settled intention that the next verse overturns.
οὐδέναoudena. . .G3762
√ οὐδείς — not even one (man, woman or thing), iAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Singular
γνῶναιgnōnaito know [He was there]G1097
√ γινώσκω — to "know" (absolutely) in a great variety of applications and with many implications (as follow, with others not thus clearly expressed)VerbAorist Infinitive Active
ΚαὶKaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
εἰσελθὼνeiselthōnHe enteredG1525
√ εἰσέρχομαι — to enter (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
εἰςeis. . .G1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
οἰκίανoikian[a] houseG3614
√ οἰκία — properly, residence (abstractly), but usually (concretely) an abode (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
oikia: a house, a dwelling Ellicott notes that the house is peculiar to Mark and reads it as the mark of a wish for privacy. The detail matters for the picture that dominates v. 27 and v. 28: this whole exchange happens around a household, where children sit at a table and small dogs wait beneath it.
καὶkaibutG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οὐκoukvvvG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
ἠδυνήθηēdynēthēwas unableG1410
√ δύναμαι — to be able or possibleVerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
dynamai: to be able Aorist passive of the verb of power. Mark, who has spent six chapters on what Jesus is able to do, writes here that he was not able. The limit is not on his authority but on his anonymity, and the story that follows shows why the failure is a mercy.
λαθεῖνlatheinto escape their noticeG2990
√ λανθάνω — to lie hid (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Infinitive Active
lanthanō: to lie hid, to escape notice A rare verb (six verses). The Verifier pairs it with Luke 8:47, where a woman who had touched him saw that she had not escaped notice and fell down before him, and with Hebrews 13:2, where hosts entertain angels without noticing. Here it is Jesus who cannot lie hid, and the one who finds him is the least likely person in the Gospel to be looking.
25

Instead, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit soon heard about Jesus, and she came and fell at His feet.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

all’ gynē hēs to thygatrion autēs eichen akatharton pneuma euthys akousasa peri autou elthousa prosepesen pros autou tous podas

Word by word19 · parsed
ἀλλ’all’InsteadG235
√ ἀλλά — properly, other things, iConjunction
alla: but, on the contrary A strong adversative, answering the failed concealment of v. 24. Pulpit notes that the approved reading here is ἀλλ’ εὐθὺς rather than ἀκούσασα γάρ.
γυνὴgynēa womanG1135
√ γυνή — a womanNounNominative Feminine Singular
ἧςhēswhoseG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounGenitive Feminine Singular
τὸtoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Neuter Singular
θυγάτριονthygatrionlittle daughterG2365
√ θυγάτριον — a daughterlingNounNominative Neuter Singular
thygatrion: a daughterling The diminutive is the first of four in this unit (with κυνάρια, ψιχία, παιδίον). Pulpit observes that Mark is fond of diminutives; the effect across the passage is a scene of small things, a small daughter, small dogs, small crumbs, in which nothing asked for is large.
αὐτῆςautēs. . .G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Feminine 3rd Person Singular
εἶχενeichenhadG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἀκάθαρτονakatharton[an] uncleanG169
√ ἀκάθαρτος — impure (ceremonially, morally (lewd) or specially, (demonic))AdjectiveAccusative Neuter Singular
akathartos: impure, unclean The link back to 7:1-23 is lexical, not merely thematic: the argument over ritual uncleanness ends, and Mark immediately supplies a child with an unclean spirit whom no handwashing could have helped.
πνεῦμαpneumaspiritG4151
√ πνεῦμα — a current of air, iNounAccusative Neuter Singular
εὐθὺςeuthyssoonG2112
√ εὐθέως — directly, iAdverb
euthys: immediately Mark's characteristic adverb of urgency, here doing real narrative work by collapsing the interval between the wish to be hidden and its defeat.
ἀκούσασαakousasaheardG191
√ ἀκούω — to hear (in various senses)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Feminine Singular
περὶperiaboutG4012
√ περί — properly, through (all over), iPreposition
αὐτοῦautouJesusG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἐλθοῦσαelthousa[and] she cameG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Feminine Singular
προσέπεσενprosepesen[and] fellG4363
√ προσπίπτω — to fall towards, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
prospiptō: to fall towards, prostrate oneself A relatively rare verb (eight verses). The Verifier ties this word to Mark 3:11, where the unclean spirits fall before him, and to Luke 8:47, where a woman who could not stay hidden falls before him trembling. Henry makes the pastoral point that no one who fell at his feet was ever turned away.
πρὸςprosatG4314
√ πρός — a preposition of directionPreposition
αὐτοῦautouHisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τοὺςtousG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
πόδαςpodasfeetG4228
√ πούς — a "foot" (figuratively or literally)NounAccusative Masculine Plural
26

Now she was a Greek woman of Syrophoenician origin, and she kept asking Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de ēn Hellēnis hē gynē tō Syrophoinikissa genei kai ērōta auton hina ekbalē to daimonion ek autēs tēs thygatros

Word by word19 · parsed
δὲdeNowG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ἦνēnshe wasG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἙλληνίςHellēnisa GreekG1674
√ Ἑλληνίς — a Grecian (iNounNominative Feminine Singular
Hellēnis: a Grecian woman Rare: two verses in the whole New Testament. The Verifier gives Acts 17:12 as the only other, where prominent Greek women at Berea believe. Mark's single use puts the first Gentile in this Gospel to receive a healing from Jesus under the same label Luke will later use of the first Gentile converts in Europe.
ἡhēG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
γυνὴgynēwomanG1135
√ γυνή — a womanNounNominative Feminine Singular
τῷtōofG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Neuter Singular
ΣυροφοινίκισσαSyrophoinikissaSyrophoenicianG4949
√ Συροφοίνισσα — a Syro-phœnician woman, iNounNominative Feminine Singular
Syrophoinissa: a Syro-Phoenician woman Cambridge, quoting Trench, presses the ancestry hard: she belongs to the stock that Israel had been commanded to destroy. Matthew's word for her is “Canaanite” (Matthew 15:22); Mark's is geographical and Roman. Both amount to the same disqualification.
γένειgeneioriginG1085
√ γένος — "kin" (abstract or concrete, literal or figurative, individual or collective)NounDative Neuter Singular
genos: kin, stock, race A dative of respect, “by descent.” The word is not a slur; it simply fixes her outside the covenant line.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἠρώταērōtashe kept askingG2065
√ ἐρωτάω — to interrogateVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
erōtaō: to ask, to request Imperfect, and therefore repeated. Mark tells the reader nothing of her persistence except through this tense; the detail that she followed and cried after them comes from Matthew, as JFB and Cambridge both note when they fill in the omitted links of the dialogue.
αὐτὸνauton[Jesus]G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἵναhinaG2443
√ ἵνα — compare G3588 (ὁ))Conjunction
ἐκβάλῃekbalēto driveG1544
√ ἐκβάλλω — to eject (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Singular
ekballō: to cast out, eject Aorist subjunctive after ἵνα. This is Mark's standing verb for exorcism, and it is worth noticing what she does not ask: she does not ask him to come, or to touch, or to speak a formula. She asks only that the thing be thrown out, and v. 29 shows that it already had been.
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
δαιμόνιονdaimoniondemonG1140
√ δαιμόνιον — a dæmonic beingNounAccusative Neuter Singular
ἐκekout ofG1537
√ ἐκ — literal or figurativePreposition
αὐτῆςautēsherG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Feminine 3rd Person Singular
τῆςtēsG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
θυγατρὸςthygatrosdaughterG2364
√ θυγάτηρ — a female child, or (by Hebraism) descendant (or inhabitant)NounGenitive Feminine Singular
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.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

prōton Aphes ta tekna chortasthēnai Kai elegen autē gar estin ou kalon labein ton tōn teknōn arton kai balein tois kynariois

Word by word21 · parsed
πρῶτονprōtonFirstG4412
√ πρῶτον — firstly (in time, place, order, or importance)AdverbSuperlative
prōton: firstly, in order or importance Mark alone preserves it, and everything turns on it. Gill draws the apostolic order out of the word: to the Jew first, and then to the Gentile, and he adds that the expression, while it gives the preference to the Jew, does not exclude the Gentile. This is the single word by which a refusal becomes a timetable.
ἌφεςAphesletG863
√ ἀφίημι — an intensive form of , to go)VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
aphiēmi: to let go, permit, forgive Imperative. Mark's usual sense of this verb elsewhere is release and remission; here it is simply “allow,” but the reader who has met it as forgiveness will hear the softer edge of the command.
τὰtatheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Plural
τέκναteknachildrenG5043
√ τέκνον — a child (as produced)NounAccusative Neuter Plural
teknon: a child, one produced Jesus' word for Israel: children of the household by birth. Gill takes it of the national adoption; the woman will not dispute the title in v. 28, and will quietly change it to the diminutive.
χορτασθῆναιchortasthēnaihave their fillG5526
√ χορτάζω — to fodder, iVerbAorist Infinitive Passive
chortazō: to fodder, to feed full Aorist passive infinitive: the children are not the actors, they are fed. This is the verb of the loaves. We checked the pairs ourselves, and the Verifier confirms that G5526 χορτάζω (fifteen verses) is shared with Mark 6:42, where the crowd in Jewish territory ate and were satisfied, and with Mark 8:8, where the crowd on the Gentile side of the lake did the same. The word Jesus uses to put her off is the word Mark has already used, and will use again, of everyone who actually gets fed.
ΚαὶKaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἔλεγενelegenHe saidG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αὐτῇautē. . .G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Feminine 3rd Person Singular
γάρgarForG1063
√ γάρ — properly, assigning a reason (used in argument, explanation or intensificationConjunction
ἐστινestinit isG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
οὐounotG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
καλόνkalonrightG2570
√ καλός — X better, fair, good(-ly), honest, meet, well, worthyAdjectiveNominative Neuter Singular
kalos: good, fair, seemly Not δίκαιον. The claim is about fitness at a table, not about legal desert, and that is precisely the ground on which she will answer him.
λαβεῖνlabeinto takeG2983
√ λαμβάνω — while G138 (αἱρέομαι) is more violent, to seize or remove))VerbAorist Infinitive Active
τὸνtontheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
τῶνtōnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Plural
τέκνωνteknōnchildren’sG5043
√ τέκνον — a child (as produced)NounGenitive Neuter Plural
ἄρτονartonbreadG740
√ ἄρτος — bread (as raised) or a loafNounAccusative Masculine Singular
artos: bread, a loaf The children's bread is the one thing in the sentence that both parties want. Gill identifies it with the ministry of the gospel and the miraculous cures that accompanied it; on any reading it is what Jesus himself brings, and by Mark 14 he will call bread his body and hand it over.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
βαλεῖνbaleintoss [it]G906
√ βάλλω — to throw (in various applications, more or less violent or intense)VerbAorist Infinitive Active
ballō: to throw, cast Aorist infinitive. The same root as ἐκβάλῃ in v. 26 and βεβλημένον in v. 30. He refuses to throw the children's bread; she does not ask him to throw anything; and the last thing Mark reports is a child thrown peacefully on a bed.
τοῖςtoisto theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Neuter Plural
κυναρίοιςkynarioisdogsG2952
√ κυνάριον — a puppyNounDative Neuter Plural
kynarion: a puppy, little dog Rare: four verses, all in this scene and its Matthean parallel, which is why the Verifier ranks Matthew 15:26-27 first among candidates. The diminutive is the crack in the door. Cambridge says the term is here softened; the woman treats it as an invitation into the house rather than a dismissal from it.
28

“Yes, Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Nai Kyrie de Hē apekrithē kai legei autō kai ta kynaria hypokatō tēs trapezēs esthiousin apo tōn tōn paidiōn psichiōn

Word by word20 · parsed
ΝαίNaiYesG3483
√ ναί — yesParticle
nai: yes, truly The pivot of the passage is a single particle of agreement. She wins nothing by contradiction; she wins by conceding the terms and then reading them more generously than they were spoken.
ΚύριεKyrieLordG2962
√ κύριος — supreme in authority, iNounVocative Masculine Singular
kyrios: lord, master, supreme in authority Vocative. Matthew records that she had already called him Son of David (Matthew 15:22); Mark keeps only this one word, and the whole confession of a Gentile rests on it. JFB observes that, though no Israelite, she salutes him as Israel's promised Messiah.
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ἩHēG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
ἀπεκρίθηapekrithēshe repliedG611
√ ἀποκρίνομαι — to conclude for oneself, iVerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
καὶkai. . .G2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
λέγειlegei. . .G3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αὐτῷautō. . .G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
καὶkaievenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τὰtatheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Neuter Plural
κυνάριαkynariadogsG2952
√ κυνάριον — a puppyNounNominative Neuter Plural
kynarion: a puppy, little dog She picks up his exact noun. Because the word is rare (four verses), the Verifier registers it as a hard verbal tie between this verse and Matthew 15:26-27; within the scene it is the term she accepts as her own address.
ὑποκάτωhypokatōunderG5270
√ ὑποκάτω — down under, iPreposition
hypokatō: down under, underneath Her theology is spatial. The place under the table is still inside the house, and a household that feeds its dogs at all has already decided they belong to it.
τῆςtēstheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
τραπέζηςtrapezēstableG5132
√ τράπεζα — a table or stool (as being four-legged), usually for food (figuratively, a meal)NounGenitive Feminine Singular
trapeza: a table, a meal The image Jesus introduced she now completes. Cambridge records that the Church took her sentence into the Prayer of Humble Access at the Eucharist, which is the clearest evidence of how the ancient and Reformation churches heard this line: as the standard form of approach to the Lord's table by the unworthy.
ἐσθίουσινesthiousineatG2068
√ ἐσθίω — used only in certain tenses, the rest being supplied by G5315 (φάγω)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
ἀπὸapo. . .G575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
τῶνtōntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Plural
τῶνtōnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Plural
παιδίωνpaidiōnchildren’sG3813
√ παιδίον — a childling (of either sex), iNounGenitive Neuter Plural
paidion: a little child She changes Jesus' τέκνα into a diminutive. Nothing polemical is gained; everything is made smaller, including her own request, which she reduces to what falls.
ψιχίωνpsichiōncrumbsG5589
√ ψιχίον — a little bit or morselNounGenitive Neuter Plural
psichion: a little bit, a morsel The rarest word in the unit: two verses in the whole New Testament, both this scene and its Matthean parallel, which is why the Verifier ranks Matthew 15:27 as the strongest candidate in the list. Cambridge adds the household detail that these were probably not accidental droppings at all, but the soft bread on which diners wiped their hands and then threw down. If that is right, she is not asking for an accident. She is asking for what the household deliberately puts within reach of the floor.
29

Then Jesus told her, “Because of this answer, you may go. The demon has left your daughter.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai eipen autē Dia touton ton logon hypage to daimonion exelēlythen ek sou tēs thygatros

Word by word15 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiThenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
εἶπενeipen[Jesus] toldG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αὐτῇautēherG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Feminine 3rd Person Singular
ΔιὰDiaBecause ofG1223
√ διά — through (in very wide applications, local, causal, or occasional)Preposition
dia: because of, through With the accusative, strict causality: this word is the stated reason.
τοῦτονtoutonthisG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounAccusative Masculine Singular
τὸνtonG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
λόγονlogonanswerG3056
√ λόγος — something said (including the thought)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
logos: something said, including the thought Mark's account hangs the cure on her sentence. This is not a doctrine of persuasive speech; it is Mark's way of showing faith in its argued form, faith that has held on to Christ's own words and pressed them further than they were spoken. Ellicott notes that Mark also makes the grant more definite than Matthew's “Be it unto thee even as thou wilt.”
ὕπαγεhypageyou may goG5217
√ ὑπάγω — to lead (oneself) under, iVerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
hypagō: to go, to withdraw Present imperative: an ordinary dismissal that in this case is itself the proof, since she must walk home before she can know anything.
τὸtoTheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Neuter Singular
δαιμόνιονdaimoniondemonG1140
√ δαιμόνιον — a dæmonic beingNounNominative Neuter Singular
ἐξελήλυθενexelēlythenhas leftG1831
√ ἐξέρχομαι — to issue (literally or figuratively)VerbPerfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
exerchomai: to go out, issue forth Perfect indicative, the tense of a completed act with standing result. This is the only exorcism in Mark performed at a distance and without any address to the spirit. Cambridge lists it with the two other cures at a distance in the Gospels, the nobleman's son (John 4:46) and the centurion's servant (Luke 7:6), and in all three the petitioner is either a Gentile or acting for someone Jesus never touches.
ἐκek. . .G1537
√ ἐκ — literal or figurativePreposition
σουsouyourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Singular
τῆςtēsG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
θυγατρόςthygatrosdaughterG2364
√ θυγάτηρ — a female child, or (by Hebraism) descendant (or inhabitant)NounGenitive Feminine Singular
30

And she went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon was gone.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai apelthousa eis autēs ton oikon heuren to paidion beblēmenon epi tēn klinēn kai to daimonion exelēlythos

Word by word17 · parsed
καὶkaiAndG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀπελθοῦσαapelthousashe wentG565
√ ἀπέρχομαι — to go off (iVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Feminine Singular
εἰςeisvvvG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
αὐτῆςautēsvvvG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Feminine 3rd Person Singular
τὸνtonvvvG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
οἶκονoikonhomeG3624
√ οἶκος — a dwelling (more or less extensive, literal or figurative)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
εὗρενheuren[and] foundG2147
√ εὑρίσκω — to find (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
τὸto[her]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
παιδίονpaidionchildG3813
√ παιδίον — a childling (of either sex), iNounAccusative Neuter Singular
paidion: a little child The narrator adopts the mother's diminutive. In a passage built entirely on small words, the last of them names the one person who never speaks and never sees him.
βεβλημένονbeblēmenonlyingG906
√ βάλλω — to throw (in various applications, more or less violent or intense)VerbPerfect Participle Middle or PassiveAccusative Neuter Singular
ballō: to throw, cast down Perfect participle. The root that ran through the request (ἐκβάλῃ, v. 26) and the refusal (βαλεῖν, v. 27) lands here on the child herself. Gill and Pulpit both read the scene as rest after violence, still and composed at last; the participle keeps the memory of what it cost.
ἐπὶepionG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
κλίνηνklinēnbedG2825
√ κλίνη — a couch (for sleep, sickness, sitting or eating)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
klinē: a couch or bed A household word (nine verses). Mark ends with domestic furniture: the household image of v. 27 and v. 28, table and floor and bed, is where the whole theological argument has been conducted.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
δαιμόνιονdaimoniondemonG1140
√ δαιμόνιον — a dæmonic beingNounAccusative Neuter Singular
ἐξεληλυθόςexelēlythoswas goneG1831
√ ἐξέρχομαι — to issue (literally or figuratively)VerbPerfect Participle ActiveAccusative Neuter Singular
exerchomai: to go out The perfect participle answers the perfect indicative of v. 29 word for word. Mark's grammar, not his comment, is the proof: what Jesus said in the perfect tense she finds in the perfect tense.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The house that could not hide him — 7:24

Mark sets the scene with two failures. Jesus goes to the ὅρια of Tyre, the boundary lines, and enters a house wanting no one to know; and then, in four blunt words, οὐκ ἠδυνήθη λαθεῖν, he was not able to be hidden. The commentators agree on the motive and divide on the geography. Cambridge, Benson, JFB and Barnes all trace the withdrawal to the hardening hostility of the Pharisaic party and the inquiries of Herod Antipas; Gill adds that a Gentile crowd would have inflamed Jewish resentment further. Benson and Gill hold that he never entered Phoenicia proper but stopped at the Galilean frontier; JFB says the whole narrative proceeds on the supposition that he did cross, and Pulpit agrees. The word ὅρια does not decide it, and we will not pretend otherwise. What is not in dispute is that Mark alone reports the house, which Ellicott takes as the sign of a wish for privacy, and that Mark alone reports that the wish failed. Maclaren draws the pastoral consequence: the longing for quiet is the human note that explains the strange tone of everything that follows.

ii. Two names, neither of them Israel — 7:25-7:26

Mark labels her three times over before she is allowed to speak: a woman, a Ἑλληνίς, a Συροφοινίκισσα τῷ γένει. Barnes and Ellicott both explain the first as the standing Jewish term for any foreigner, and Benson, citing Campbell, notes that since the Macedonian conquest “Greek” had become simply the word for Gentile. The second is ancestry, and Cambridge, quoting Trench, refuses to soften it: she comes of the stock once devoted to destruction, spared only by Israel's failure to carry out the ban. Everything was against her. Meanwhile the child has an ἀκάθαρτον πνεῦμα, an unclean spirit, and the adjective is not an accident of vocabulary. Mark has just finished twenty-three verses of argument about clean and unclean, ending with Jesus declaring all foods clean; the very next thing he records is a real uncleanness in a Gentile house, of a kind no handwashing tradition ever addressed. Her verb, ἠρώτα, is imperfect: she kept asking. Mark tells us nothing else of her persistence; JFB and Pulpit fill in from Matthew the silence, the disciples' irritation, and the cry “Lord, help me.”

iii. First, and the little dogs — 7:27

Ellicott records the plain textual fact that the first clause is peculiar to Mark: πρῶτον, first, let the children be fed full. Maclaren builds his whole reading on that adverb, arguing that a first implies a second and that Israel's privilege is therefore priority rather than monopoly; he adds that the very picture of a house where children sit at the table and the little dogs are in the room already assumes that both belong to one household. Gill reaches the same destination by the apostolic route: to the Jew first and then to the Gentile, and he says outright that the expression, while it gives the preference to the Jew, does not exclude the Gentile. The offence of the saying is real and should not be explained away: κυναρίοις is still a name for Gentiles on Jewish lips, as Cambridge and Pulpit both document. But the noun is a diminutive, the house dog and not the street pack, and here the sources diverge honestly. Cambridge says the term is thereby softened; Geneva says the little dog is chosen so that he may seem to speak more reproachfully. We print both and decide neither. JFB, hearing it as she heard it, records the turn: is this the death of her hopes? Rather it is life from the dead.

iv. Yes, Lord: the answer that took him at his word — 7:28

Her reply is a particle and a title, Ναί, Κύριε, and then a sentence that concedes every term and moves the boundary anyway. Cambridge names the logic exactly: her yea is the yea of admission and not of contradiction, and in the very declaration she affirms that the granting of her petition is involved. She keeps his diminutive κυνάρια and adds two of her own, ψιχίων and παιδίων, shrinking her whole request down to what falls. She accepts the floor, ὑποκάτω τῆς τραπέζης, and in accepting it claims the room. JFB, who is rarely astonished, is astonished here at the lightning quickness of a heathen woman. Pulpit gives Cornelius a Lapide's expansion of the same instinct, the little dog that will be driven off with a blow and come back through another door. And Cambridge records the historical outcome of the sentence: the Church of England took her words into the Prayer of Humble Access, so that what a Canaanite said under a table in Phoenicia became the standard approach of the unworthy to the Lord's table. That is not our inference. It is the note's own claim.

v. Because of this word — 7:29-7:30

Mark's grant is peculiar: Διὰ τοῦτον τὸν λόγον, because of this word. Ellicott notes that Mark omits Matthew's “O woman, great is thy faith” and makes the answer more definite than Matthew's “be it unto thee even as thou wilt.” JFB supplies Bengel's observation that Jesus marvelled at only two things, faith and unbelief. But Mark himself points at her sentence, not her virtue, and we should let him. Then the tense does the work: ἐξελήλυθεν, perfect indicative, has gone out and stays out, spoken at a distance with no address to the spirit and no journey to the house. Gill presses the deity of Christ from exactly this: his divine power reaches to all places, persons and things, and the miracle was wrought without his going or speaking to the demon. She has to walk home before she can know it. When she arrives, Mark's participle ἐξεληλυθός repeats the tense of his promise word for word, and the child is found βεβλημένον, flung on the bed, the same verb of throwing that ran through her request and his refusal. Pulpit and Gill read the stillness as exhaustion after the convulsion of departure, not sleep. Cambridge, quoting Trench, ranks this faith above the paralytic's and Bartimaeus's, because the hindrance she broke through came from Christ himself.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ Our own fallible reading, offered to be tested against the text. This passage is usually defended as though the problem were Jesus' manners. We think the problem is our impatience with his order. Mark has just recorded the abolition of food laws as a boundary of the heart, and he immediately shows that abolishing a boundary is not the same as abolishing a sequence: πρῶτον is a word about time, and a timetable is not a wall. What the woman perceives, and what the disciples in Matthew's parallel do not, is that the metaphor Jesus chose has a floor in it. He compares Israel to children at a table, and to speak of a table at all is to concede a household, and a household that keeps κυνάρια under it feeds them. She does not argue against the picture; she lives inside it and finds the room he left. That is what Mark calls her λόγος, and it is why he, unlike Matthew, grounds the cure in what she said rather than in how much she believed: faith here is not a quantity of confidence but an argument made out of Christ's own words, refusing to let go of him even when he is the obstacle. The sentence that follows is in the perfect tense before she has any evidence at all, and Mark's last participle repeats that tense exactly, so that the whole miracle is the grammar of a promise verified on arrival. If that reading is right, the passage is not chiefly about Gentile inclusion as a doctrine. It is about how a person who has no standing whatever gets a hearing: by taking the hardest word Christ ever spoke to her and treating it as a door. (The line below is our sentence, not Scripture.)

She did not argue with the picture; she found the floor in it, and the floor was inside the house.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The crumbs and the little dogs: Matthew's parallel verbal / quotation: confirmed

Matthew 15:21-28 tells the same encounter, and the two accounts share the two rarest words in the unit. κυνάριον (G2952, little dog) occurs in only four verses in the New Testament, and ψιχίον (G5589, crumb) in only two, both of them this exchange and Matthew's. The Verifier ranks Matthew 15:27 and Matthew 15:26 as the top two candidates for this unit on exactly that basis. The differences are as instructive as the agreement: Matthew has her call him Son of David and records “great is thy faith”; Mark has neither, but alone preserves “let the children first be filled,” which Ellicott flags as peculiar to him, and Ellicott also notes that Mark's “eat of the children's crumbs” varies slightly from Matthew's “crumbs that fall from their masters' table.” JFB and Cambridge both reconstruct the full dialogue by going to Matthew for the links Mark omits.

Matthew 15:26 · Matthew 15:27 · Matthew 15:22

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G2952 κυνάριον (in 4 vv) and G5589 ψιχίον (in 2 vv), both rare, plus G3483 ναί (in 30 vv) and G740 ἄρτος; Greek to Greek within the New Testament, so the verbal tier is available

Two little daughters: Jairus and the Syrophoenician verbal / quotation: confirmed

θυγάτριον (G2365, a daughterling) occurs in only two verses in the whole New Testament, and both are Mark's: 5:23, where a ruler of the synagogue falls at his feet for his little daughter, and 7:25, where a Canaanite mother falls at his feet for hers. The Verifier confirms the shared lexeme. Mark gives both petitioners the same posture, falling at his feet. The cures then go different ways, and the difference should not be blurred: Jairus gets Jesus in the house, taking the child by the hand, while this mother gets a sentence and a walk home. ⚙ We take the pairing as deliberate composition rather than coincidence, though Mark makes no comment on it: a ruler of the synagogue and a woman of the stock of Canaan reach for the same rare diminutive, and neither is finally refused.

Mark 5:23

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G2365 θυγάτριον (in 2 vv), a maximally rare word occurring only here and at Mark 5:23; both texts Greek, no quotation claimed, the link is lexical

Ἑλληνίς: the only other Greek woman in the New Testament verbal / quotation: confirmed

The feminine noun Ἑλληνίς (G1674) occurs in only two verses. Here it marks the first Gentile in Mark's Gospel to receive anything from Jesus' hand; at Acts 17:12 it marks the prominent Greek women who believed at Berea when the word went to a European city. Barnes and Ellicott both explain that in Jewish usage the term classified religion rather than ancestry, and Ellicott compares the later use of “Frank” in the East for any European. ⚙ Placing the two verses side by side is our own observation of what the rare word joins: the same label stands over the woman who argued for crumbs and over the households that later received the whole loaf.

Acts 17:12

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G1674 Ἑλληνίς (in 2 vv), the only two occurrences in the New Testament; both Greek texts, lexical link only, no quotation

Those who could not stay hidden verbal / quotation: confirmed

Mark says Jesus οὐκ ἠδυνήθη λαθεῖν, could not be hidden, and then a woman προσέπεσεν, falls at his feet. Luke 8:47 uses both rare verbs of another woman, who saw that she had not escaped notice and fell down before him; Mark 3:11 uses προσπίπτω of the unclean spirits that fall before him, and in the same chapter Mark notes that his fame had already reached Tyre and Sidon, which JFB and Pulpit both cite to explain how she had heard. The same two verbs therefore carry the concealment that failed and the posture that answered it.

Luke 8:47 · Mark 3:11

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G2990 λανθάνω (in 6 vv) and G4363 προσπίπτω (in 8 vv) with Luke 8:47, and G4363 with Mark 3:11; both rare, all texts Greek, no quotation claimed

Elijah went to Phoenicia too typological

Cambridge makes the link explicitly at v. 24: as Elijah travelled out of his own land into Phoenicia, so Jesus now goes to the borders of Tyre. The shape is the same in every particular Mark reports: a prophet of Israel withdrawing from official hostility into Gentile territory, received by a woman who is not an Israelite, and restoring her child. ⚙ Where 1 Kings gives a raising from death and Mark an exorcism, the figural reading is that the second answers the first. This is a typological claim and we mark it as such. It cannot be a verbal link: 1 Kings is Hebrew and Mark is Greek, so no shared Strong's lexeme is possible between them, and none is asserted.

1 Kings 17:8-24

basis: Cross-Testament (Hebrew to Greek), so no shared Strong's number can be computed and none is claimed; the basis is the shared narrative pattern of prophet, Phoenician territory, Gentile woman, restored child, named at this verse by the Cambridge Bible. Widely held, not novel

Let the children first be fed: Israel's priority structural / thematic: confirmed

The premise Jesus states and the woman concedes is Israel's prior claim on the bread. Deuteronomy 7:6 and 14:2 name Israel a people holy to the LORD, chosen out of all peoples for his own possession; Psalm 147:19-20 says he declared his word to Jacob and has not dealt so with any nation. Gill reads Mark's πρῶτον straight into the apostolic practice of preaching to the Jew first and then to the Gentile, which is Paul's formula at Romans 1:16. ⚙ The thread is a motif, not a citation: Mark quotes none of these texts and neither do we claim he does.

Deuteronomy 7:6 · Deuteronomy 14:2 · Psalm 147:19-20 · Romans 1:16

basis: Cross-Testament and cross-language, so no shared lexeme is computable; the Verifier returned no candidate for these pairs. Recorded basis is the shared motif of Israel's covenantal priority, drawn by Gill from πρῶτον. No quotation claimed

The foreigner at the table: the promise she reached for structural / thematic: confirmed

Her argument assumes that the household of God has a floor as well as a table, and Israel's own Scriptures had said so before her. Genesis 12:3 promises that in Abraham all the families of the earth will be blessed; 1 Kings 8:41-43 has Solomon pray for the foreigner who comes from a far country toward that house; Isaiah 49:6 calls the servant a light to the nations, and Isaiah 56:3-8 tells the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD not to say “the LORD will surely separate me from his people,” for his house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. ⚙ Mark does not cite any of these, and the woman does not quote them. We record the connection as thematic only, and note that it is the reading behind Cambridge's and Pulpit's figural comments rather than an explicit New Testament use of the Old.

Genesis 12:3 · 1 Kings 8:41-43 · Isaiah 49:6 · Isaiah 56:3-8

basis: Cross-Testament (Hebrew to Greek): shared Strong's numbers are impossible and none is asserted. Basis is the shared motif of the foreigner admitted to the house of God, with no quotation or verbal echo claimed

Tyre under the oracles, Tyre under the table structural / thematic: confirmed

Tyre and Sidon are not neutral ground in the canon. Isaiah 23:1-18 and Ezekiel 28:1-23 pronounce judgment on Tyre's pride and commerce, and Joel 3:4-8 charges Tyre and Sidon with selling the children of Judah. Cambridge fills in the history Mark assumes: Hiram's cedar for David and Solomon, and then Ahab's marriage to the daughter of Ithobal king of Tyre, which brought in the worship of Baal. ⚙ Our reading is that Mark chooses the one border in Israel's memory most saturated with judgment, and stages there the one scene in which a Gentile out-argues the Messiah into mercy. The link is thematic and geographical; no quotation exists, and a verbal tier would be impossible in any case across the language boundary.

Isaiah 23:1-18 · Ezekiel 28:1-23 · Joel 3:4-8

basis: Cross-Testament (Hebrew to Greek), no shared Strong's lexeme computable or claimed. Basis is the shared subject, Tyre and Sidon, and the motif of judgment on Phoenicia against which Mark's setting is read; the historical background is sourced from the Cambridge Bible note at 7:24

The frame of borders: 7:24 and 7:31 structural / thematic: confirmed

Mark encloses this episode between two statements of territory. The Verifier confirms that 7:31 shares ὅριον (G3725), Τύρος (G5184) and ἐξέρχομαι (G1831) with 7:24. The third of these is the same verb Mark uses twice of the demon that has gone out, so the departure from the borders and the departure of the spirit are told with one word. ⚙ That overlap is our observation; the shared lexemes are the Verifier's.

Mark 7:31

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G3725 ὅριον (in 11 vv), G5184 Τύρος (in 11 vv) and G1831 ἐξέρχομαι (in 212 vv). The lexemes are real, but only moderately uncommon, and what we are claiming is a framing pattern and not a quotation, so we tier this thematic and under-claim on purpose

Fed full: the verb of the loaves structural / thematic: confirmed

Jesus does not say the children must be served, but that they must be χορτασθῆναι, fed to the full. We checked the pairs with the Verifier ourselves, and G5526 χορτάζω (fifteen verses) is shared with Mark 6:42, where the five thousand in Jewish territory ate and were satisfied, and with Mark 8:8, where the crowd on the far side of the lake ate and were satisfied in the same words. Mark has therefore placed this refusal between two satisfied crowds and built the refusal out of their verb. ⚙ Our reading is that the sequence answers the saying: the children are fed first in chapter 6, this woman is answered in chapter 7, and the loaves are broken again beyond the border in chapter 8. Gill reaches the same order by a different road, saying that when the Jews had despised the provision the Gentiles would have plenty set before them, eat of them, and be filled.

Mark 6:42 · Mark 8:8

basis: Verifier pair check run by us: shared Greek lexeme G5526 χορτάζω (in 15 vv) with both Mark 6:42 and Mark 8:8; the Verifier itself tiers both pairs structural / thematic, and we keep that tier rather than claiming a quotation

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The children's bread and the one who is the bread ancient/widely-held

⚙ The refusal is spoken about ἄρτον, a loaf, and Mark has placed this scene in a stretch of his Gospel dominated by loaves: the feeding of the crowd in Jewish territory before it, and a second feeding on the Gentile side of the lake after it, and the Verifier confirms, on a pair check we ran ourselves, that the verb of the refusal, χορτάζω (G5526, fifteen verses), is the very verb of both crowds who ate and were satisfied. Gill identifies the children's bread here with the ministry of the gospel and the miracles that confirmed it, and says that when Israel had despised it, the Gentiles would have plenty of gospel provisions set before them, eat of them, and be filled. The line runs out to the upper room, where the one who would not take the children's bread from them takes bread in his own hands and says that it is his body, and to the table where, as Cambridge records, the Church put this woman's words into the mouth of every communicant in the Prayer of Humble Access. That liturgical fact is Cambridge's; the lexical tie is the Verifier's; the reading that runs the motif from the loaves through this refusal to the upper room is ours, fallible, and offered to be tested.

Mark 6:41-42 · Mark 8:6-8 · Mark 14:22

The greater prophet in Phoenicia ancient/widely-held

Cambridge names the pattern outright: as Elijah went out of his own land into Phoenicia and dealt there with a Gentile woman and her son, so Jesus goes to the borders of Tyre. Luke has Jesus himself make that comparison the occasion of his rejection at Nazareth, where the point of citing Zarephath is that the prophet was sent to none of the widows in Israel but to a woman in Sidon. ⚙ Our reading is that Mark stages the claim that Luke reports Jesus making: the one who is greater than the prophets goes where the prophets went, and the sign of his greatness is not a larger miracle but a longer reach, an unclean spirit cast out of a child he never sees, in a house he never enters, by a word spoken across a border. This is a typological reading, held from the early church onward through Cambridge and the Pulpit editors, and it is interpretation, not something Mark states.

1 Kings 17:8-24 · Luke 4:25-27

The word that heals at a distance ancient/widely-held

⚙ Mark's whole cure is a perfect tense: ἐξελήλυθεν, it has gone out. There is no touch, no journey, no command addressed to the spirit, and no confirmation until she has walked home. Gill takes this as a direct evidence of deity, that Christ as God is everywhere and his divine power reaches to all places, persons and things, and had wrought the miracle without going to her or speaking to him. Cambridge groups it with the nobleman's son and the centurion's servant as the three cures performed at a distance, and it is worth noticing that in each case the petitioner stands outside the immediate circle, and in two of the three is a Gentile. The Christology is the plain one: the word of Christ is effective wherever it is spoken, which is the only ground on which anyone reading this page, at whatever distance from Galilee, has anything to hope for. Pulpit goes further and reads the delivered Gentile daughter as the Church of the Gentiles entering the kingdom through the door of mercy; that is an allegorical extension, widely held but interpretive, and we mark it as the Pulpit editors' reading rather than Mark's statement.

John 4:46-53 · Luke 7:6-10 · Mark 7:29

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (c. 1905)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text. Three variants touch this unit, and our sources disagree about one of them. At 7:24 Ellicott states that the better manuscripts omit “and Sidon,” reserving that name for 7:31; the Pulpit Commentary replies that there is not sufficient authority for the omission. BSB prints “the region of Tyre” only. At 7:25 Pulpit reports that the approved reading is ἀλλ’ εὐθὺς rather than ἀκούσασα γάρ, which is what the interlinear before us shows. At 7:28 Pulpit notes a reading of καί for καὶ γάρ, giving “Yea, Lord: even the little dogs,” again matching our text. At 7:30 Pulpit says the best authorities invert the clauses, putting the child found on the bed before the departure of the demon; our interlinear has that order. We have not collated manuscripts ourselves and report these only as the commentators state them.

Sources. Matthew Poole supplies no independent comment on this passage at all: every entry simply refers the reader to his notes on Matthew 15, and at 7:27 the cross-reference printed in our source reads “Mark 1:24,” which appears to be an error in the underlying text rather than Poole's intention. We therefore quote no Poole here. Matthew Henry's concise note is a single block on 7:24-30 repeated under every verse, and Albert Barnes likewise refers the reader to Matthew and repeats one short note on the word “Greek”; we quote each once rather than five times. Alexander Maclaren's exposition is capped in our brief, with roughly 3,277 further characters unread, so our account of his argument beyond the quoted lines is drawn from the portion we have and may be incomplete. Where the Cambridge Bible speaks most powerfully it is usually quoting Richard Chenevix Trench, and where the Pulpit Commentary does, it is quoting Cornelius a Lapide or Chrysostom; we have named them in the editorial notes rather than letting the editors take credit.

What is uncertain. Whether Jesus crossed into Phoenicia or stopped at the frontier is not settled by ὅρια and the commentators divide on it. Whether the diminutive κυνάρια softens the saying (Cambridge) or sharpens it (Geneva) is a real disagreement we have not resolved. Every cross-Testament thread in this unit is tiered structural or typological, because Hebrew and Greek texts cannot share a Strong's number and we will not manufacture a verbal basis; the Old Testament material behind “let the children first be fed” and behind the woman's appeal is motif, not quotation, and Mark quotes nothing here. The Verifier returned no candidate for the Deuteronomy, Psalm, Genesis, Isaiah, Ezekiel or Joel pairs, and we say so in each badge. The one lexical claim we did not take from the brief, that χορτάζω joins this refusal to Mark's two feedings, we checked ourselves with the Verifier's pair tool before printing it: G5526 is shared with Mark 6:42 and Mark 8:8, fifteen verses in all, and the Verifier tiers both pairs thematic, which is the tier we kept. The wider reading built on that verb, and the reading of the bread motif out to Mark 14:22, remain our own fallible synthesis.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)