Who Is My Neighbor?

The Continuity

The episode opens with a “lawyer” asking Jesus how to inherit eternal life. Jesus responds with a question: “What is written in the law?” The lawyer quotes verses from the Torah known to all Jews of his time— Deut.6:5 and Lev.19:18. These verses had already been combined in Jewish thought and had indeed been considered to be the foundation of the whole Torah; so by this point we observe only continuity between the covenants. 
 

The 3rd man

The dialogue continues, however, and the famous parable follows; a man was attacked and left for dead and both a Priest and a Levite passed him by. There is a shocking aspect that may escape a non-Jewish reader – every Jew belongs to one of three groups; Priests, descended from Aaron; Levites, descended from Levi; and Israelites, descended from the other children of Jacob. Therefore after the Priest and Levite, a first-century Jew would have expected mention of the third group—an Israelite. 
  

The Challenge

However, the third person is not an Israelite but a Samaritan, the enemy of the Jews. Moreover, the fact that this Samaritan proves to be a neighbor, while the Priest and the Levite fail, directly challenges the contemporary Jewish interpretation of the word “neighbor”. Thus, not only continuity, but also the innovation of the New Testament, is evident here. Enroll in our “Jewish Background of the New Testament” course to see the continuity between the covenants – and also, to comprehend the challenge of Jesus’ message.