A.T. Robertson Commentary Mark 7:19

"because it goeth not into his heart, but into his belly, and goeth out into the draught? [This he said], making all meats clean." — Mark 7:19 (ASV)

Making all meats clean (καθαριζων παντα τα βρωματα). This anacoluthon can be understood by repeating

he says (λεγε) from verse 18. The masculine participle agrees with Jesus, the speaker. The words do not come from Jesus, but are added by Mark. Peter reports this item to Mark, probably with a vivid recollection of his own experience on the housetop in Joppa when in the vision Peter declined three times the Lord's invitation to kill and eat unclean animals (Acts 10:14–16). It was a riddle to Peter as late as that day. "Christ asserts that Levitical uncleanness, such as eating with unwashed hands, is of small importance compared with moral uncleanness" (Vincent). The two chief words in both incidents, here and in Acts, are

defile (κοινοω) and

cleanse (καθαριζω). "What God cleansed do not thou treat as defiled" (Acts 10:15). It was a revolutionary declaration by Jesus and Peter was slow to understand it even after the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Jesus was amply justified in his astonished question:

Perceive ye not? (ου νοειτε; ). They were making little use of their intelligence in trying to comprehend the efforts of Jesus to give them a new and true spiritual insight.