Mark 7

Mark 7:1-23 . DISCOURSE ON CEREMONIAL POLLUTION. ( = Matthew 15:1-20 ).

Mark 7:24-37 . THE SYROPHOENICIAN WOMAN AND HER DAUGHTER--A DEAF AND DUMB MAN HEALED. ( = Matthew 15:21-31 ).

The Syrophoenician Woman and Her Daughter ( Mark 7:24-30 ).

The first words of this narrative show that the incident followed, in point of time, immediately on what precedes it.

24. And from thence he arose, and went into the borders--or "unto the borders."
of Tyre and Sidon--the two great Phoenician seaports, but here denoting the territory generally, to the frontiers of which Jesus now came. But did Jesus actually enter this heathen territory? The whole narrative, we think, proceeds upon the supposition that He did. His immediate object seems to have been to avoid the wrath of the Pharisees at the withering exposure He had just made of their traditional religion.
and entered into an house, and would have no man know it--because He had not come there to minister to heathens. But though not "sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" ( Matthew 15:24 ), He hindered not the lost sheep of the vast Gentile world from coming to Him, nor put them away when they did come--as this incident was designed to show.
but he could not be hid--Christ's fame had early spread from Galilee to this very region ( 3:8 , Luke 6:17 ).

25. For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit--or, as in Matthew ( Matthew 15:22 ), "was badly demonized."
heard of him--One wonders how; but distress is quick of hearing.

26. The woman was a Greek--that is, "a Gentile," as in the Margin.
a Syrophoenician by nation--so called as inhabiting the Phoenician tract of Syria. JUVENAL uses the same term, as was remarked by JUSTIN MARTYR and TERTULLIAN. Matthew ( Matthew 15:22 ) calls her "a woman of Canaan"--a more intelligible description to his Jewish readers (compare Judges 1:30 Judges 1:32 Judges 1:33 ).
and she besought him that he would east forth the devil out of her daughter--"She cried unto Him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David: my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil" ( Matthew 15:22 ). Thus, though no Israelite herself, she salutes Him as Israel's promised Messiah. Here we must go to Matthew 15:23-25 for some important links in the dialogue omitted by our Evangelist.