Who Was the Good Samaritan?by KeeperAtHome | More from this Blogger 17 Feb 2007 05:54 PM
Many people have heard the story of the Good Samaritan. From the story, we can tell that there is a significance to the fact that it was the Samaritan, not the priest or the Levite who stopped to help the wounded man. Knowing a little bit about who the Samaritans were and what their relationship was to the Jews adds a new dimension to the story. Samaritans viewed themselves as Israelites, and as true remnants of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. They believed that they had held to the monotheistic faith of their fathers and upheld the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament) as their authority. They kept the rite of circumcision, observed the Sabbath and Jewish festivals, and honored Moses. Why is it then that the Bible tells us that "the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans" (John 4:9)? The Jews despised the Samaritans. They considered Samaritans "half breeds"-descendants of Mesopotamian (Gentile) colonists who settled in the area and intermarried with the Jews who lived there at one time. Samaritans were regarded as wholly impure and just as bad as the Gentiles. In Jesus' day, Herod the Great (the Jewish figurehead) married a Samaritan woman in order to alleviate some of the tension, but to no avail. Deepening the rift between the two groups was the fact that the Samaritans in New Testament Bible times rejected the Jewish temple worship. Three hundred years earlier the Samaritans had constructed their own temple on Mount Gerizim. They also rejected all of the Heberw Bible except for the Torah. The Jews were so convinced of the inferiority of the Samaritans that when traveling throughout Israel, they would take detours around the city of Samaria, going many miles out of their way in order to avoid it. Some have said that the Jews would not even allow the Samaritans to convert to true Judaism. By keeping this all in mind, we can see the significance of the Samaritan stopping to help the wounded man. The Samaritan was willing to stop and help a man who despised and hated him. The Levite and the priest, who were esteemed righteous and Godly by the Jews, would not so much as stop to check on the man. One lesson we can learn from this story is that it is the heart of a person that matters, not their ethnicity. What Did the Members of the Early Church Do? Betrothal and Wedding Customs at the Time of Christ Relevantchristian tags User Comments No comments on this article yet. Be the first to comment! Community Tags Jews and Samaritans, Life in Bible Times, n, Samaritans in Bible Times, The Good Samaritan Discuss this article
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