Good Samaritan. The parable of the Good Samaritan is a parable told by Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. It is about a traveller who is stripped of clothing, beaten, and left half dead alongside the road. First a priest and then a Levite comes by, but both avoid the man. Finally, a Samaritan happens upon the traveller. Samaritans and Jews despised each other, but the Samaritan helps the injured man. Jesus is described as telling the parable in response to the question from a lawyer, And who is my neighbour? In response, Jesus tells the parable, the conclusion of which is that the neighbour figure in the parable is the man who shows mercy to the injured man, that is, the Samaritan. Some Christians, such as Augustine, have interpreted the parable allegorically, with the Samaritan representing Jesus Christ, who saves the sinful soul. Others, however, discount this allegory as unrelated to the parable's original meaning and see the parable as exemplifying the ethics of Jesus. The parable has inspired painting, sculpture, satire, poetry, photography, and film. The phrase good Samaritan, meaning someone who helps a stranger, derives from this parable, and many hospitals and charitable organizations are named after the Good Samaritan. In the Gospel of Luke chapter 10, the parable is introduced by a question, known as the Great Commandment: Behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested him, 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? He answered, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself. He said to him, You have answered correctly. Do this, and you will live. But he, desiring to justify himself, asked Jesus, Who is my neighbor?,   Luke 10:25-29, World English Bible Jesus replies with a story: Jesus answered, A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who both stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. By chance a certain priest was going down that way. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. In the same way a Levite also, when he came to the place, and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he travelled, came where he was. When he saw him, he was moved with compassion, came to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. He set him on his own animal, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the host, and said to him, 'Take care of him. Whatever you spend beyond that, I will repay you when I return.' Now which of these three do you think seemed to be a neighbor to him who fell among the robbers? He said, He who showed mercy on him. Then Jesus said to him, Go and do likewise.,   Luke 10:30-37, World English Bible In the time of Jesus, the road from Jerusalem to Jericho was notorious for its danger and difficulty, and was known as the Way of Blood because of the blood which is often shed there by robbers. Martin Luther King, Jr., in his I've Been to the Mountaintop speech, on the day before his death, described the road as follows: As soon as we got on that road I said to my wife, I can see why Jesus used this as the setting for his parable. It's a winding, meandering road. In the days of Jesus it came to be known as the Bloody Pass. And you know, it's possible that the priest and the Levite looked over that man on the ground and wondered if the robbers were still around. Or it's possible that they felt that the man on the ground was merely faking, and he was acting like he had been robbed and hurt in order to seize them over there, lure them there for quick and easy seizure. And so the first question that the priest asked, the first question that the Levite asked was, If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me? Jesus' target audience, the Jews, hated Samaritans to such a degree that they destroyed the Samaritans' temple on Mount Gerizim. Due to this hatred, some think that the Lawyer's phrase The one who had mercy on him may indicate a reluctance to name the Samaritan. Or, on another, more positive note, it may indicate that the lawyer has recognized that both his questions have been answered and now concludes by generally expressing that anyone behaving thus is a neighbor eligible to inherit eternal life.