What Does Mark 7:28 Mean in the King James?
And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Greek καί can mean “also” or “even” here: her reply places the little dogs within the household’s provision, beneath the same table that feeds the children.
THE MEANING
The verse meets the reader at a boundary that still leaves something within reach. A small portion remains part of the same provision, even when the place and share are unequal.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that receiving less means having no place at the table.
THE ROOT
ψιχίων
psichiōn
GROWS FROM
ψιχ-
psich-
Crumb or small morsel; ψιχίων is the genitive plural of ψιχίον, a little crumb.
“crumbs” in this verse is psichiōn. The Greek word keeps a crumb within the family of the bread it comes from: it is a small piece of the meal itself. Her answer turns on portion and position beneath the table, not on a separate source of food.
ALSO GROWS
psíx: Crumb, morsel
ψίξ
This is the base word behind the diminutive form used for crumbs here.
psíkha: Crumb or soft interior of bread
ψῖχα
It keeps the small piece connected to the bread itself, sharpening the image of provision reaching beneath the table.
κυνάρια
kynaria
GROWS FROM
κυν-
kyn-
Dog; κυνάρια is the diminutive form of the word for dog.
The Greek uses a form often rendered little dogs. That diminutive gives the scene a household scale: the dogs are beneath the table, close enough for its small portions to reach them.
ALSO GROWS
kyōn: Dog
κύων
This is the base noun behind the diminutive used in the verse.
kynarion: Little dog
κυνάριον
This diminutive form makes the dogs’ place beneath the table part of the image.
THE PATTERN
Provision reaches beyond its first recipients, and what seems small or leftover remains within its reach.
And Boaz said unto her, At mealtime come thou hither, and eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers: and he reached her parched corn, and she did eat, and was sufficed, and left.Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.THE THREAD
And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.Matthew uses the same Greek word for crumbs, ψιχίων (psichiōn), and the same word for little dogs, κυνάρια (kynaria). Its mention of crumbs falling from the table makes explicit how the small portion reaches those beneath it.
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