What Does Mark 7:27 Mean?
But Jesus said to her, Let the children first be filled, for it is not fitting to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it unto the dogs.THE KEY
The word “first” turns the bread into an ordered claim and makes the boundary around its provision explicit.
THE MEANING
The sentence gives the children first claim to the bread and calls taking it from them to cast to the dogs “not meet.” The image makes exclusion audible as an ordered rule: the woman asking for provision is placed beyond the first circle of belonging.
THE ROOT
χορτασθῆναι
khortasthēnai
GROWS FROM
χορτ-
χορτ- (khort-): grass or fodder, extending to feeding until full.
“be filled” in this verse is khortasthēnai. The word for being filled belongs to a family that connects fodder with feeding and satisfaction. English “filled” can sound like mere capacity; this Greek family brings the image back to food that satisfies hunger.
ALSO GROWS
chórtos: grass; fodder
χόρτος
This branch shows the food and feeding sense beneath the verse’s language of being filled.
khortázō: to feed; satisfy; fill
χορτάζω
This is the verb family of the verse’s “be filled,” joining fullness to being fed.
πρῶτον
prōton
GROWS FROM
πρωτ-
πρωτ- (prōt-): first; foremost.
The stem carries the idea of being first or holding precedence. Here “first” marks a priority in who receives the bread, not merely a moment in time.
ALSO GROWS
prōtos: first; foremost
πρῶτος
This adjective shares the stem and makes the sense of precedence explicit.
prōteúō: to be first; hold first place
πρωτεύω
This verb shows the stem describing priority or first place, the ordering at stake in the verse.
prōtótokos: firstborn
πρωτότοκος
This compound carries the same firstness into a marked position within a family.
κυναρίοις
kynaríois
GROWS FROM
κυν-
κυν- (kyn-), from κύων (kýōn): dog; canine.
The verse uses κυνάριον (kynárion, little dog), a diminutive of κύων. The diminutive shapes the image, but the word still places the dogs in a distinct position from the children at the table.
ALSO GROWS
kýōn: dog
κύων
This is the base noun behind the diminutive used in the verse.
kynikós: doglike; canine
κυνικός
This related form preserves the same κυν- stem and shows its wider canine association.
THE PATTERN
A first claim governs the sequence in which provision is received.
And Elijah said to her, Do not fear; go and do according to your word, but first make me a little loaf from it, and bring it out to me, and afterward make for yourself and for your son.For I am not ashamed of the good news of the anointed one, for it is the power of God for deliverance to everyone who trusts, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.But each in his own rank, the Anointed One as first portion, then those of the Anointed One at his arrival.THE THREAD
Flourishing are the hungering now, for you will be filled. Flourishing are the weeping now, for you will laugh.Mark’s “be filled” and Luke’s “shall be filled” are forms of χορτάζω (khortázō, feed or satisfy). Luke’s promise to the hungry brings the same root into view where Mark places filling inside a contested order of access.
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