Home / Topics / The Good Samaritan: Who the Audience Was
The lawyer's question — 'Who is my neighbor?' — was a legal maneuver, not a sincere inquiry. He wanted to know where his obligation ended. Jesus answered by making the category of 'neighbor' impossible to restrict, then asked a question the lawyer couldn't answer without praising the person he despised most.
Get These Verses Daily — Free“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?”
The verb 'tempted' is ekpeirazō — a deliberate test, not a sincere question. Jesus answered a question with a question, making the lawyer supply his own answer first.
“But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?”
Luke's note — 'willing to justify himself' — is the key to the entire exchange. The lawyer wanted a boundary, not a command. He was looking for legal confirmation that some people were outside his obligation.
“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.”
Priest then Levite — the audience was primed for an Israelite layman as the third figure. Jesus broke the expected folk-story structure by naming a Samaritan instead, requiring the audience to receive help from their most despised neighbor.
“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.”
The wounded man had to let a Samaritan touch him, carry him, and pay for his recovery. The story forces the listener into the position of being saved by the wrong 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.”
The lawyer couldn't say 'the Samaritan.' He answered obliquely: 'He that shewed mercy.' Jesus accepted it. The command wasn't to answer the lawyer's original question — it was to become the kind of person who couldn't defend the question.
The exchange begins with a lawyer — an expert in Mosaic law — standing up to test Jesus. This is not casual conversation. In the Greek, the verb "tempt" (ekpeirazō) suggests a deliberate attempt to expose a flaw in Jesus's teaching. He asked: "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus answered with a question: what does the law say? The lawyer answered correctly: love God with everything you have, and love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus affirmed him: do this and you will live.
Then comes the verse that triggers the parable — Luke 10:29: "But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?" The lawyer knew the answer to the first question. He wasn't asking for knowledge. He was asking for a limit. In Jewish legal tradition, "neighbor" had a debated scope — did it extend to foreigners, to enemies, to Samaritans? Some interpretations restricted it to fellow Israelites. The lawyer was seeking confirmation of a boundary. He wanted to know who was outside the category, so he could love his neighbor with a clean legal conscience and everyone else not at all.
Jesus told a story. A man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho — the road drops 3,300 feet over seventeen miles through desolate terrain, known in antiquity as "the Way of Blood" because of the bandits who used its rocky outcrops — was stripped and beaten and left for dead. A priest came down the road and passed by on the other side. A Levite came and passed by. Both had reasons rooted in purity law — touching a possibly-dead body would have rendered them unclean and unable to serve in the temple. Their avoidance was not pure hypocrisy; it was a real legal tension.
Commentary is from a charismatic Protestant perspective, drawing on KJV text and public-domain sources including Spurgeon, Andrew Murray, and Matthew Henry.
The Jewish audience listening to this story knew the rhythm. Priest, Levite — then the expected third figure in this folk-story pattern would be an Israelite layman, a contrast hero from within the community. The punchline would be that the ordinary Jew did what the religious leaders wouldn't. That was the expected structure. Jesus broke it. The third man was a Samaritan. The audience's identification with the wounded man — which had been building — suddenly required them to receive mercy from the person they despised most. Not just observe it. Be saved by it. Be indebted to it.
Jesus then reversed the original question. He didn't ask "who was the neighbor to the Samaritan?" — framing it from the Samaritan's perspective would have let the lawyer stay outside the story. He asked: "Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?" The lawyer could not say "the Samaritan." The word wouldn't come out. He said "He that shewed mercy on him." He couldn't name the Samaritan. Jesus accepted the indirect answer and said "go and do thou likewise." The command was not to categorize your neighbors correctly. It was to become capable of the kind of mercy that crosses the boundaries you've been defending. The parable didn't answer the original question. It abolished it.
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