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The Good Samaritan
One passage. Several ways in.
Luke 10:25-37 · KJV
Five questions on the parable Jesus told when a lawyer asked who counted as his neighbour.
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A closer reading
A question asked to set a limit
Read the exchange before the parable. The lawyer already knows the answer — he recites it — and Jesus tells him to go and live it. The second question is the interesting one, because it is asked by someone who wants the commandment to have an edge he can stand outside of.
“And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?”
Luke 10:25-29 · KJVTwo men who saw him
Luke gives the priest and the Levite no motive and no excuse. Each of them saw, and each passed by on the other side. The parable does not tell us what they were thinking, which leaves the reader to notice that seeing and doing are two different things.
“And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.”
Luke 10:31-32 · KJVCompassion that costs something
The Samaritan's mercy is measured out in detail: his oil and wine, his beast, his money, his time, and an open promise to pay more. The story spends four times as long on what he did as on what the other two did not do.
“But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.”
Luke 10:33-35 · KJVThe question turned around
Jesus does not answer “who is my neighbour?” He replaces it. The question becomes which of the three *was* a neighbour — and the answer is the one who acted. Being a neighbour is not a fact about the other person.
“Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.”
Luke 10:36-37 · KJV
About the parable of the Good Samaritan
The parable is an answer to a question that was trying not to be answered. A lawyer asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life, recites the law correctly when it is handed back to him — love God, love your neighbour as yourself — and is told to go and do it. That should have ended the conversation. Instead, “willing to justify himself,” he asks a second question: and who is my neighbour? It is a request for a boundary. The parable refuses to draw one.
Three men come down the same road. The priest and the Levite are not villains in the story; Luke says only that each one saw the man and “passed by on the other side.” They are the two figures the lawyer would have expected to be the heroes. The third is a Samaritan — for the audience, the wrong sort of person entirely — and he is the one who stops, and the only one whose actions get any detail: he binds the wounds, pours in oil and wine, gives up his own beast, pays the innkeeper, and promises to cover whatever more it costs.
Then Jesus turns the lawyer's question inside out. He does not ask which of the three the wounded man was a neighbour to; he asks which of the three “was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves.” Neighbour stops being a category you check someone against and becomes something you either are or are not. The lawyer answers without using the word Samaritan — “He that shewed mercy on him” — and is sent away with the same instruction he was given before the story started: go, and do thou likewise.
Written and checked against the King James text by Random Bible. Last reviewed September 17, 2026.
The Good Samaritan: common questions
What is the main point of the parable of the Good Samaritan?
That “neighbour” is not a category you check people against but something you do. Jesus is asked who counts as a neighbour and answers by asking which of three passers-by acted as one — “He that shewed mercy on him” (Luke 10:37).
Where is the Good Samaritan in the Bible?
Luke 10:25–37. It appears only in Luke's Gospel, told in reply to a lawyer's question about who his neighbour is.
Why was it significant that the helper was a Samaritan?
Samaritans and Jews were long estranged, so the audience would have expected the hero to be the priest or the Levite. Making the outsider the one who shows mercy removes any group the listener could place themselves safely inside.
What did the Samaritan actually do for the man?
He bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, set him on his own beast, brought him to an inn and took care of him, then left two pence with the host and promised to repay whatever more was spent (Luke 10:34–35).