A parable of Jesus told in answer to a lawyer's question, "who is my neighbor": a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho is beaten by robbers and left half dead; a priest and then a Levite each pass by on the other side of the road, but a Samaritan, a member of a people the lawyer's own community held in religious and ethnic contempt, stops, treats his wounds, carries him to an inn and pays for his continued care. Jesus then asks the lawyer which of the three proved to be a neighbor to the wounded man.
Facts
Controversy
Point in DisputeInterpreters debate whether the parable's force depends on the real historical animosity between Jews and Samaritans in Jesus' own day being kept fully in view, or is incidental to a more general point about mercy, since popular retelling often strips out the ethnic tension the original telling relies on. 2 Canonicity (class) Literary form (class) Identity
Position in the CanonChapter 10 of 24 in the Gospel of Luke. 1 Canonical ReferenceLuke 10:29-37, following the lawyer's question in 10:25-28 1 Sources
Textual NoteUnique to Luke's Gospel among the four canonical Gospels; no parallel version appears in Matthew, Mark or John. 2 Meaning
ThemeNeighborly love extended across a boundary of religious and ethnic hostility, redefining who counts as a neighbor by an act of mercy rather than by shared identity. 2 Text
Literary FormParable, framed as Jesus' direct answer to a legal question about the scope of the neighbor love commandment rather than volunteered teaching. 2 Connections
Associated With
Jesus, Figures Source The New Testament, Gospel of LukeAnonymous
Source The New Testament, Gospel of LukeAnonymous
Belongs to Tradition
Source The New Testament, Gospel of LukeAnonymous
Contained In
Source The New Testament, Gospel of LukeAnonymous
Sources
1. The New Testament, Gospel of Luke
Anonymous
2. The Gospel According to Luke X-XXIV (Fitzmyer, Anchor Bible)
Joseph A. Fitzmyer, Doubleday and Company, Garden City, New York (The Anchor Bible, vol. 28A), 1985View the Source Reader Challenges (0)
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