An Atheistic Bible study Of The Gospel Parables The Good Samaritan

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The best known, and undoubtedly the most influential parable of Jesus, even in the secular world, surprisingly only covered in one of the four Gospels, that of Luke (10:25-29). Jesus meets a lawyer who asks him for the right way to guarantee eternal life. Jesus engages in a near Socratic dialogue, asking the Lawyer what he thinks the answer might be. The Lawyer replies that you should love God and also love thy neighbour. Jesus tells him it is the correct answer but the Lawyer, having read the answer somewhere without fully understanding it, asks who the neighbour is, if not literally someone living next door. Jesus replies with the Good Samaritan parable. A Jewish man travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho is mugged, robbed and severely beaten, before being left naked and half dead by the roadside. A Rabbi and a Levite (both sharing his own religion) ignore his pain and cries for help and walk by him without helping. A Samaritan, one of a people then despised by the Judeans, offers assistance, stemming the blood loss and soothing the man with oil and wine before putting him on the Samaritan’s own mule to lead him to the nearest inn, getting the inn-keeper to care for the patient, and even paying two denarii to the inn-keeper for his time and trouble. The Samaritan stays overnight to be sure the patient will survive and promises to look in to see how the man fared on his return journey. He promises the inn-keeper more money later if the cost of treatment exceeds what he has already paid. The listening lawyer realises that all people are his neighbour and each needs his mercy and compassion. A rarity, in that it is a story by Jesus that has few faults, other than occasional demands of love to God. The Samaritan helps a stranger from a people who hold Samaritans in great prejudice. The Samaritan has nothing to gain by his action. Even the man’s own people offered no help. The name Samaritan, though relating to a specific nation, Samaria, has become synonymous with caring and helping, especially with The Samaritan society who help talk many people out of suicide and offer a listening ear to the depressed. If there is one story in the entire Bible that even atheists like me can appreciate, it is this one. Youtube – The Beatles – Help