Matthew 15:26 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

It is not meet to take the children's bread, &c.— The Jews gloried greatly in the honourable title of God's children, because of all nations they alone knew and worshipped the true Jehovah: they gave the name of dogs to the heathens for their idolatry and other pollutions, by which they had in their judgment degraded themselves from the rank of rational creatures. By this appellation the Jews intended to mark the impurity of the Gentiles, and their odiousness in the sight of God; at the same time conveying an idea of the contempt in which they were held by the holy nation: though in some respects it was applicable, it must have been very offensive to the heathens. Nevertheless, this good woman neither refused it, nor grudged the Jews the honourable title of children: she acknowledged the justness of what Christ said, and, by a strong exercise of faith, drew an argument from it, which the candour and benevolence of his disposition could not resist.