Essay On The Parable Of The Good Samaritan

A once great and numerous people that has since then died out. These people would be the
Samaritans, a group of people that lived during the time of the Old Testament. They were both
Jewish and not Jewish and had a very unique religion, which caused them to be hated by the
Jews. The Samaritans were also used in one of Jesus’ parables along with the Jews to teach a lesson on who is your neighbor and how you should love and be kind to them. When thinking of the Samaritans it is hard to not also think of the Jews; the two groups were often talked about together, mostly about their apposition to each other.

Before information can be given on the Samaritans, their backstory of how they came to be must be told. The kingdom of Israel
had split into the Northern and Southern kingdoms, the
Northern being Israel and the Southern being Judah. Well around 724 B.C. the Assyrians conquered Northern Israel and sent most of the Israelites living there out and sent them into other countries. Then the Assyrians sent in five eastern tribes to live in Northern Israel. The people of these tribes brought their own foreign religions and customs when they came in and inter- married with the Israelites still inhabiting Northern Israel. These “mixed” people were the
Samaritans and this is the story of how they came to be.

The Samaritans lived in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Samaria, which was located between
Galilee to the north and Judea to the south, was their capital city. Racially the Samaritans were people mixed with Jewish and pagan ancestry. Around the time of Jesus the Samaritans numbered several hundred thousand and were located in settlements all across the Fertile
Crescent. The number of Samaritans has dwindled greatly since their beginning; today there are only around 500 Samaritans left. Cox2 The “worship” or “religion” of the Samaritans is quite interesting. The Samaritans worshipped the Jewish God, who they called Yahweh, but their religion was not Judaism. They accepted only the first five books of the Bible. The Samaritans worshipped at Mount Gerizim and later built a temple there instead of worshipping in Jerusalem. The Samaritans’ religion is a clear reflection of their history. Since they were only partly Jewish it makes complete sense why they only believed or accepted certain parts of the Jewish religion, right?

There was a very distinct schism between the Jews and the Samaritans. The Jews looked down upon the Samaritans. It was because of the Samaritans’ “imperfect adherence to Judaism” and their partly pagen ancestry that caused the Jews to absolutely despise them. If a Jew was ever traveling and his quickest path was to go through Samaria he would go completely out of his way to make sure he did not pass through Samaria.
On one instance, when the Jews came back to
Jerusalem to rebuild the temple, the Samaritans offered to help rebuild, but this offer was scornfully rejected by the Jews.

Now understanding the tension between the Jews and Samaritans it is clear why Jesus chose these two groups for the Parable of the Good Samaritan. In this story there is a man, he was
Jewish, who was walking on a road to Jericho from Jerusalem. All of a sudden he was attacked by robbers, who stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and left him there to die. Now there was a priest going down this same road, however when he saw the man lying there he crossed the road and continued on his way. Later a Levite was going down the road, but once he saw the man he too crossed the road and continued on his way. Finally there was a Samaritan man traveling down the road. When he saw the man lying there to die he took pity on him and bandaged his wounds. The Samaritan put the wounded man on his donkey, took him to an inn, and took care of him. He left money for the man to be taken care of and planned to even come back to
check on the man. In the time of Jesus this story would have been an absolute shocker, but Jesus wanted to teach the people a lesson about who their neighbor was and about being kind and compassionate to everyone.

Today the Samaritan people have practically died out. However, back in the days of the Old Cox3
Testament the Samaritans were a thriving group of people that were utterly despised by the Jews.
No wonder Jesus used the Samaritans and Jews in his parable on loving your neighbors. The
Samaritans are an often-forgotten, but very important group in the Old Testament.