Mark 7 · a question people ask
Why did Jesus answer her with the children and the dogs?
Mark doesn't say. He gives Jesus's words: "Let the children be filled first, for it is not appropriate to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs" (7:27). He doesn't say who the children are, or the dogs, or why Jesus answered so. He gives her answer, "Yes, Lord. Yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs" (7:28), and then Jesus's: "For this saying, go your way. The demon has gone out of your daughter" (7:29). Matthew tells of a woman in the region of Tyre and Sidon in his own account (Matthew 15:21-28), and there the WEB gives his answer as "It is not appropriate to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs" (Matthew 15:26). That is Matthew's account, in Matthew's words. These notes don't fill Mark's account from Matthew's, add no reason Mark doesn't give, and leave both their words as the WEB has them.
The verses
“Now the woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by race. She begged him that he would cast the demon out of her daughter. But Jesus said to her, “Let the children be filled first, for it is not appropriate to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” But she answered him, “Yes, Lord. Yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” He said to her, “For this saying, go your way. The demon has gone out of your daughter.””