Luke 10:25-37 - Expanding the Definition of Neighbor: A Deep Dive into the Parable of the Good Samaritan
And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.” (Luke 10:25-37, ESV Bible)
Inheriting Eternal Life
And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” (Luke 10:25-28, ESV Bible)
A Torah scholar came to the Master with a question. He brought the question to test Him. That does not mean that he came to entrap the Master, rather he wanted to uncover the young teacher's perspectives. He may have been a Judean who had not previously had the opportunity to hear Rabbi Yeshua's teaching, the story is not clear.
He asked him, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" (Luke 10:25). In a Jewish context, inheriting "eternal life" does not refer to the souls ascent to heaven after death, it means the resurrection from the dead and life in the World to Come. It was the type of challenging question that a student might ask a sage. For example, consider the following conversation in the Talmud that highlights disciples asking their rabbi for practical guidance on how to live a life that is worthy of spiritual reward and eternal life:
When Rabbi Eliezer was on his deathbed, his disciples visited him. They said to him, "Master, teach us the ways of life so that we may walk in them and obtain life in the World to Come," He told them, "Be [more] concerned about the honor of your colleagues [than your own]; keep your children from meditating [on worthless things]; set them between the knees of sages, and when you pray, know the One before whom you stand. In this way you will obtain the World to Come." (b. Berachot 28b)
Rabbi Yeshua turned the question back on the man. He asked him, “What is written in the Torah? How does it read to you? (Luke 10:26). In posing the question this way, Rabbi Yeshua denied that eternal life requires some additional revelation, special knowledge, or secret formula which supersedes God’s revealed will and wisdom in the Torah. In other words, He said that the answer to the question could be found in the Torah, and He asked the Torah scholar for his own interpretation. When one rabbi asks another, "How do you read it?", he is asking for an interpretation on a text. The man replied:
You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself. (Luke 10:27)
The man pulled his reply from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus I9:18:
You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (Deuteronomy 6:5, ESV Bible)
You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD. (Leviticus 19:18)
Matthew and Mark report a similar conversation between Yeshua and another sage:
But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:34-40, ESV Bible)
And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions. (Mark 12:28-31, ESV Bible)
In Matthew and Mark, Yeshua ranks the commandment to love God as the greatest commandment and the commandment to love one's neighbor as the second greatest. In this case in Luke, the Torah scholar put the two great commandments together himself.
The rabbis, in Mishnah Berakhot 2:2, called the recitation of the commandment to love God "accepting the yoke of the kingdom of heaven." This term is used in Jewish tradition to describe the act of reciting the Shema, which includes the commandment to love God. The Shema is a declaration of faith that emphasizes the oneness of God and the commitment to loving and serving Him with all one's heart, soul, and might. In this context, the "yoke of the kingdom of heaven" symbolizes the acceptance of God's sovereignty and the responsibilities that come with it. By reciting the Shema, one is affirming their dedication to God's commandments and recognizing His authority over their lives. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korcha says the Shema comes first so that one may "accept the yoke of the kingdom of heaven" before accepting the "yoke of the commandments." This means that the Shema is recited first to establish God's sovereignty and one's commitment to Him. Only after this affirmation does one proceed to accept and commit to following God's commandments, which are outlined in the subsequent sections of the Shema.
The Sifra, a Halakhic Midrash on Leviticus, provides detailed commentary on Leviticus 19:18, which states, "You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against your countrymen. Love your fellow as yourself: I am the LORD." This verse is a foundational ethical commandment in Judaism. The Sifra emphasizes the significance of this verse by explaining that it teaches the prohibition of revenge and grudges. It also underscores the positive commandment to love others as oneself. Rabbi Akiva, in Sifra on Leviticus 19:18, considered the commandment to love one's neighbor as oneself the "great principle of Torah." The Sifra elaborates that this commandment means treating others with the same respect and care one desires for oneself. It extends to all interactions and relationships, advocating for empathy, compassion, and fairness. The Sifra also connects this principle to other aspects of Jewish law and ethics, such as the prohibition against humiliating even a condemned prisoner, underscoring the value of human dignity in all circumstances.
From a Jewish perspective, the commands to love God and neighbor do not replace the rest of the commandments of Torah. The commandments to love God and to love one’s neighbor are seen as the foundational principles upon which the rest of the Torah and its commandments rest. The commandments to love God and neighbor guide the ethical and spiritual framework within which all other commandments operate. "On these two commandments depend the whole Torah and the Prophets" (Matthew 22:40). They are the foundation of all the commandments. They are seen as providing the right intention and mindset for observing the mitzvot.
Often, many interpet these two commandments as all that matter, and everything else in the Torah doesn’t matter anymore. Jewish thought suggests that without the principles of love, the observance of other commandments may be deficient or hollow. For example, performing mitzvot without understanding their ethical and spiritual underpinnings can lead to mechanical or insincere practice. The prophet Isaiah criticizes mere ritual observance without ethical conduct (Isaiah 1:11-17).
Delighted with the man's answer, Yeshua declared, "You have answered correctly." According to Rabbi Yeshua, one who loves God with all his being and loves his neighbor as himself stands to inherit the World to Come. Yeshua said:
And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” (Luke 10:28, ESV Bible)
Yeshua quoted a third text from the Torah, a passage from Leviticus 18:5:
You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the LORD. (Leviticus 18:5, ESV Bible)
The sages often pointed to the same passage, and they interpreted the words "you will live" to mean “You will inherit eternal life":
Talmud Bavli, Sanhedrin 90a: This passage discusses the idea that the righteous, who observe the commandments, will merit eternal life. The phrase "he shall live by them" is interpreted to mean life in the World to Come.
Talmud Bavli, Makkot 23b-24a: This passage further elaborates on the significance of following the commandments. Rabbi Akiva states that "you shall live by them" signifies life in the World to Come.
Midrash, Sifra on Leviticus 18:5: The Sifra, a Halakhic Midrash, explains that living by the commandments implies more than just physical life. It denotes a life of spiritual fulfillment and reward, extending into the afterlife.
Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Teshuva 8:1: Maimonides states that the reward for the righteous is the World to Come, which aligns with the interpretation of "you will live" as eternal life. He explains that the ultimate reward for following God's laws is not merely earthly benefits but eternal spiritual existence.
It also helps to compare Leviticus 18:5 with the version that appears in Targum Pseudo-Yonatan:
So you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, by which a man may live if he does them; I am the LORD. (Leviticus 18:5)
And you shall keep My statutes, and the order of My judgments, which If a man do he shall live in them, in the life of eternity, and his portion Shall be with the righteous: I am the Lord. (Leviticus 18:5, Targum Pseudo-Yonatan)
Even the apostle Paul understood Leviticus 18:5 to refer to eternal life:
But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” (Galatians 3:12, ESV Bible)
Paul eventually makes the argument that all have fallen short of “living” by the commandments and therefore we are under the curse of the law. We can get into how the faithfulness of Messiah, and placing our hope in him who redeems us from the curse of the law (Galatians 3:13-14) and helps all people achieve a place in the world to come in another study.
The concept of eternal life is indeed reflected in earlier Jewish texts and thought (pre-New Testament era), although it may not be as explicitly stated as it is in later rabbinic literature (i.e Talmud, Mishnah, etc). The association of the phrase "you will live" with eternal life can be traced through various stages of biblical and post-biblical interpretation.
There are several passages in the Hebrew Scriptures that hint at an understanding of life beyond physical death and divine reward:
Daniel 12:2:
"Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt."
This passage is one of the clearest references in the Hebrew Bible to the concept of resurrection and eternal life.
Isaiah 26:19:
"But your dead will live, LORD; their bodies will rise— let those who dwell in the dust wake up and shout for joy— your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead."
This verse suggests a belief in resurrection, which can be linked to the idea of eternal life.
Psalm 16:10-11:
"because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay. You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand."
This psalm expresses a confidence in life beyond death and the presence of God.
By the Second Temple period, Jewish thought had further developed concepts of resurrection and eternal life, influenced by texts such as the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha:
2 Maccabees 7:9:
"And when he was at his last gasp, he said, ‘You accursed wretch, you dismiss us from this present life, but the King of the universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life, because we have died for his laws.’"
This text from the deuterocanonical literature clearly reflects a belief in resurrection and eternal life.
The New Testament, particularly in the teachings of Jesus and Paul, reflects Jewish thought of the Second Temple period and early rabbinic interpretations. Eventually, the sages of the Talmud further developed these ideas, linking specific biblical verses to the concept of eternal life. The concept of "you will live" associated with eternal life has its roots in the Hebrew Scriptures, with clear developments in Second Temple literature and explicit articulation in the Talmud. This progression shows a deepening understanding of eternal life within Jewish thought, which is echoed in the New Testament. The foundation of these ideas lies in the Torah and prophetic writings, with later Jewish interpretation making the connections more explicit.
Who is my Neighbor?
But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29, ESV Bible)
The Torah scholar pressed the matter further because he wanted "to justify himself." He wanted to be found righteous before God and inherit eternal life. To do so, he needed to love his neighbor as himself. But exactly how far did that command extend? He asked, "Who is my neighbor?"
The context of Leviticus 19:18 places the "neighbor" parallel with "one of your people," thus implying that the neighbor should be understood only as a brother Israelite:
You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD. (Leviticus 19:18)
Following that literal reading of the text, the majority of Jewish interpretation limits the scope of the commandment to one's fellow Jew. The Community Rule from Qumran espouses a similar sentiment. It says, "Love all the sons of light ... and hate all the sons of darkness," understanding the sons of light as members of the sect and sons of darkness to be fellow Jews outside the sect (Community Rule (1QS)1.10-11; Geza Vermes, The Dead Sea Scrolls in English). Consider the following adage about loving one's fellow from Avot DeRabbi Natan, Chapter 16:
This teaches that no man should think, "Love the sages but hate the disciples," or "Love the disciples but hate the ignorant." On the contrary, love all of these, but hate the sectarians, apostates, and the informers. (Avot DeRabbi Natan 1:16)
The text emphasizes the importance of loving all people within the Jewish community, including sages, disciples, and even the unlearned, while drawing a distinction with sectarians, apostates, and informers. This teaching underscores the inclusive nature of love within the community, advocating for compassion towards everyone except those who actively betray or harm the community. Is this what Yeshua meant? Did he only mean to love your fellow Jew?
When he asked, "Who is my neighbor," the expert in Torah might have been wondering how far such love must actually extend. Perhaps he hoped Yeshua would narrow the scope a little bit.
The Torah does not sanction hatred for fellow Jews. The Torah explicitly says:
"You shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart" (Leviticus 19:17).
However, the Torah requires a man to love even the stranger and to show kindness to enemies by assisting them when they fall into difficulty:
You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God. (Leviticus 19:34, ESV Bible)
If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying down under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it; you shall rescue it with him. (Exodus 23:5, ESV Bible)
“You shall not abhor (regard with disgust and hatred) an Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you were a sojourner in his land. Children born to them in the third generation may enter the assembly of the LORD. (Deuteronomy 23:7-8, ESV Bible)
Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles, (Proverbs 24:17, ESV Bible)
Yeshua taught a broad interpretation of "your neighbor," much broader than your "fellow Jew" or "fellow community member." He is going to demonstrate this in the parable of the Good Samaritan. He may have based His broad definition upon a similar passage in Leviticus 19:34, the third and final commandment in the Torah containing the verb ve’ahavta ('and you shall love"), and a parallel to Leviticus 19:18 in that it instructs to love the stranger as yourself. Compare the commandments that contain the verb ve’ahavta ('and you shall love"):
You shall love (ve'ahavta) your neighbor as yourself. (Leviticus 19:18)
The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love (ve'ahavta) him as yourself: (Leviticus 19:34)
You shall love (ve'ahavta) the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (Deuteronomy 6:5)
The Good Samaritan
Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. (Luke 10:30, ESV Bible)
To answer the question of "who is my neighbor," Rabbi Yeshua told the parable of the good Samaritan. A certain Jew was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho when bandits attacked him, stripped him, and left him for dead beside the road. A priest came and passed him by as did a Levite. Finally a Samaritan came across him, dressed his wounds, brought him to an inn, and paid for his convalescence in advance.
The story is not really a parable in the strict sense. It does not have the parabolic introduction of "to what can this be compared, it can be compared to...", nor do the characters in the story symbolize something other than themselves. Like a parable, the drama of the story illustrates a central point, but the tale of the good Samaritan follows more conventional story-telling technique than the typical parable. It lacks the artificial transparency of a parable. Brad Young refers to this type of parable as a "story parable," a mini-drama told to communicate the deeper meaning of the storyteller (The Parables: Jewish Tradition and Christian Interpretation). Chasidic storytellers employed the same genre as they spun captivating parables to communicate deep spiritual truths.
The story took place on the dangerous road between Jericho and Jerusalem. The road, with its treacherous steep cliffs, sudden drops, and long stretches of barren wilderness, has long been a hideout for bandits and troublemakers. Rabbi Yeshua and His disciples traveled that road often enough on their pilgrimages to and from Jerusalem. They would have knew it well.
According to the Talmud, in b.Ta’anit 27a, half of all priests and Levites at that time lived in the city of Jericho. Priests and Levites coming and going from the Temple in Jerusalem must have passed along that road on a daily basis.
Priests: Direct descendants of Aaron, responsible for performing the most sacred Temple rituals and sacrifices, subject to strict purity laws.
Levites: Members of the broader tribe of Levi, assisted the priests, handled Temple maintenance and other duties, supported by tithes, and had specific cities instead of territorial inheritance. Levites were also subject to purity laws, but these were not as stringent as those for priests.
The priest and Levite who saw the man left for dead may have had issues of ritual purity in mind. They may have assumed him dead. They were in route to Jerusalem to serve in the Temple services. If the man beside the road was dead, contact with the corpse would render them unclean and unable to serve in the Temple:
And the LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them, No one shall make himself unclean for the dead among his people, except for his closest relatives, his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother, or his virgin sister (who is near to him because she has had no husband; for her he may make himself unclean). He shall not make himself unclean as a husband among his people and so profane himself. (Leviticus 21:1-4, ESV Bible)
According to the sages, such ritual conscientiousness was no excuse for neglecting a person in need or even a human corpse. The Pharisees considered the burial of a neglected corpse an important obligation incumbent upon anyone who comes across it. The Mishnah refers to the obligation of burying a neglected corpse as met mitzvah, the "death commandment.” The obligation applies even to the high priest and supersedes concerns about ritual purity:
A high priest and a Nazirite [must not] contract uncleanness on account of [burying even] their close relatives, but they do contract corpse uncleanness on account of a neglected corpse. Rabbi Eliezer says, "Let a High Priest contract corpse uncleanness [on account of burying a neglected corpse]." (m. Nazir 7:1)
Midrash Sifrei on Numbers 26, ratchets up the obligation one notch further. It states that even a high priest who is also a Nazirite must personally perform the duty of burying a neglected corpse if there is nobody else available.
Why then, did the priest and the Levite pass by the man on the road? The man was not completely dead but they could have perceived him as dead. They may have been Sadducees who rejected the Pharisaic traditions and therefore, in their rigid sola scriptura literalism, did not want to hazard the possibility of corpse contamination. Even more likely, they simply did not want to inconvenience themselves to help someone in need. They did not extend their definition of "love your neighbor as yourself" to the man lying injured by the road.
The arrival of the priest first and the Levite second follows a well known formulaic Jewish convention. Synagogue protocol calls a Kohen first, followed by a Levite, and then an Israelite during the Torah reading and is rooted in the desire to honor the biblical and historical roles of these groups. In modern synagogue practice, this tradition is carefully maintained to respect historical roles and avoid disputes:
Kohen (Priest): Direct descendants of Aaron, the Kohanim are given the first honor in Torah reading as a mark of their special status and historical duties in the Temple.
Levite: As the tribe assigned to assist the Kohanim and perform various Temple services, Levites are given the second honor.
Israelite: Members of the general Jewish population receive the remaining honors.
As Yeshua told the story, He built His listener's expectation along that same progression. The priest was followed by a Levite, and the Levite should have been followed by an Israelite. Everyone would have expected the third traveler to be a Jew. After all, to "love your neighbor as yourself" meant "love your fellow Jew." The priest Levite-Israelite formula heightened expectation and added to the shock of the reversal when the third character to come down the road proved to be not a brother Israelite but a Samaritan.
Chesed, Not Sacrifice
He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.” (Luke 10:37, ESV Bible)
Yeshua finished His story by asking, Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers' hands?" (Luke 10:36). Only the Samaritan behaved like a neighbor and demonstrated the attitude of love commanded in Leviticus 19:18. He fulfilled the commandment and became the injured Jew's neighbor. "One cannot define one's neighbor; one can only be a neighbor." Therefore, a person's neighbor is not limited to one's fellow Jew (or from the Samaritan's perspective, a person's neighbor is not limited to one's fellow Samaritan).
History of the Jew-Samaritan Difficulty
The enmity between Samaritans and Jews provided the story with its punch. As explained above, Jews of the first century had no love for the Samaritans, nor did the Samaritans ordinarily perform kindnesses for Jews. The Gospel of John states the matter succinctly: "Jews have no dealings with Samaritans" (John 4:9).
The Samaritans trace their origins to the Northern Kingdom of Israel and claim descent from the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, as well as from the Levites. After the Assyrian conquest of the Northern Kingdom in 722 BCE, many Israelites were exiled, and the region was repopulated with foreign peoples who intermarried with the remaining Israelites (2 Kings 17:24-41). This mixed population became known as the Samaritans.
The Samaritans accepted only the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) as their sacred scripture, rejecting the other books of the Jewish Tanakh. They also maintained a separate place of worship on Mount Gerizim, as opposed to the Jerusalem Temple, which further deepened the rift between the two groups.
Around 128 BCE, the Jewish Hasmonean king John Hyrcanus destroyed the Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim, exacerbating hostilities between the two communities.
Yeshua Makes His Point
By bringing a Samaritan into the story, Yeshua indicated that the definition of one's neighbor must be broad enough to include even one's enemy. He broadened the application of the commandment, "love your neighbor as yourself," to mean "love your fellow human being as yourself."
Yeshua asked the expert in Torah, "Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man?" The Torah scholar replied, "The one who showed mercy toward him." Elsewhere in the gospel, the word "mercy (eleos)" translates the Hebrew chesed. This ties the parable of the good Samaritan to Yeshua's broader ethical teachings about placing compassion for human beings ahead of ritual motives. When teaching on that theme, the Master often quoted Hosea 6:6, "For I delight in chesed rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings." The compassion of the Samaritan made a more acceptable sacrifice before God than the holy priest and Levite could offer, despite their ritual purity.
When Yeshua asked, "Which of these three do you think proved to be a "neighbor?”, the sage did not reply, "The Samaritan." He replied, “The one who showed mercy.” The Samaritan could no longer be identified by race or religion but by his acts of love and mercy. Yeshua said, "Go and do the same."
References
This lesson was curated from teachings from First Fruits of Zion “Chronicles of the Messiah,” and teachings by Daniel Lancaster at Beth Immanuel Messianic Synagogue.