Brian P. Stoffregen Exegetical Notes at  Mark 7.24-37  Proper
18  - Year B  Other texts:   Lamar Williamson, Jr. (Mark,
Interpretation) connects our text with verses 1-23 with:  If in
the preceding passage Jesus "declared all foods clean" (7:19),
in these stories he declares all persons clean, whether a
Gentile woman in a pagan city or a man of indeterminate race in
the unclean territory of the Decapolis. The stories are two
examples of the sample principle: Both advance Jesus'
repudiation of traditional taboos (p. 137).  Non-Jewish
references abound in these two stories: "Tyre," "Gentile,"
"Syrophoenician," "Sidon," "Decapolis."  However, in 7:19b Mark
adds a comment "Thus he declared all foods clean," but now there
is a girl affected by an unclean spirit (7:25). Jesus' comments
earlier in chapter 7 do not make everything clean. There are
still unclean and evil things and powers in the world, but this
Gentile woman is not one of them.  I would also connect these
stories with 1-23 about the importance of "wha