The Parable of the Good Samaritan
A Jewish man is left for dead by bandits, but help comes from a most unexpected quarter.
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From Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
This page from the sixth-century Rossano Gospels shows Christ as the Good Samaritan, attended by an angel. The artist is thinking allegorically. We were all but dead in our sins, but though we were at enmity with him God sent his Son down to our side of the road; he became one of us, and carried us into his Church for our recovery. See Romans 5:6-10. Many religions teach neighbourly compassion; Christianity alone teaches that compassion led God to become our neighbour, man born of a woman.
Introduction
‘Love thy neighbour as thyself’ is a commandment of the Law of Moses; but one lawyer wanted to know whom Jesus thought his neighbour was? Jesus, as was his wont, answered with a question of his own. When a man was left for dead in a notorious crime blackspot between Jerusalem and Jericho, which of three men proved to be his neighbour? Which of them did as he himself would be done by?
AND, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou?
And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.
And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.
But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?
And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.* And by chance there came down a certain priest that way:* and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.*
* The northern hills were infested with bandits, and this was a common occurrence on the roads. Josephus related an incident in the time of the Emperor Claudius (r. 41-54), on the road from Galilee to Judaea through Samaria. Some Galileans were set upon by Samaritan villagers, and when the Roman authorities dithered the Galileans recruited a local bandit named Eleazar to exact revenge. It escalated into a more than usually bitter conflict between the two groups, which ended up a suit before the Emperor himself. Claudius found for the Galileans and fired the Procurator of Judaea, Ventidius Cumanus, appointing Marcus Antonius Felix, the man who would hear the case of St Paul, in his place. See Antiquities of the Jews XX.6.i-iii.
* The word priest suggests a member of the tribe of Levi who was also descended from Aaron, brother of Moses. They were required to serve in the Temple, performing the daily and holy day offerings.
* Jewish law required that a priest coming into contact with a dead body must undergo tiresome and lengthy purification rites: see Numbers 19:11-13. Since our priest could not see whether the man was dead or not, and had no wish to incur such professionally embarrassing penalties, he broke a commandment which carried no specific penalty (‘love thy neighbour as thyself,’) so as not to risk breaking another that did (‘he that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days’).
