The uncleanness of kitchen wares is not the only kind of uncleanness the Jews abhorred. They extended this attitude to persons, especially those of other races. The woman in question has three disqualifications: she was a born loser on three counts: she was a woman (a sad misfortune, in the eyes of the rabbis, all males of course); she was a Greek, her national or ethnic status was wrong; and she is called “Syrophoenician,” a racial term but having inevitable and
Mark 7:24–37