The Good Samaritan

Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. (Luke 6:36)

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

The first characteristic of God in Exodus 34:6 is mercy. The Hebrew word for mercy, ‎רַח֖וּם, (rahum, BDB 9028) is used in conjunction with ‎וְחַנּ֑וּן, (hannun, BDB 3259) both of which translate as compassion, suggesting a compound idiom. The same problem exists in the Septuagint Greek words,οἰκτίρμων (oiktirmon) and ἐλεήμων (elemon), respectively. In English, a judicial distinction is often given where mercy is not getting a punishment that one deserves, while compassion is receiving a blessing that one did not earn.

This translation problem continues in the New Testament. Consider: “For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” (Rom. 9:15) The Apostle Paul uses both Greek words in this sentence, which are translated into the English as mercy and compassion, respectively. Jacob benefits from God’s favor while his brother Essau does not, an example of divine sovereignty (Rom 9:13; 9:18). A sovereign action is possible because the benefit is not earned and no obligation is implied. We scratch our heads on reading this story, because we cringe at the idea that God favors one sinner over another.

Interestingly, the Hebrew word for mercy is only used to describe God, making it difficult to offer a parable describing God’s characteristic within a human context.

The Good Samaritan

The legal context of parable of the Good Samaritan sheds light on the distinction between mercy and compassion. When the Samaritan finds the man stripped and beaten by robbers, the text reads: “But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion.” (Luke 10:33) The Greek word for compassion is ἐσπλαγχνίσθη, which is unrelated to either mercy or compassion in the Hebrew cited above, but means something like: His heart went out for him.

Later, when the Jewish lawyer talking to Jesus recapitulates the sentiment of the parable, he uses the word, ἔλεος (Luke 10:37), that is translated into English as mercy. While ἔλεος can also be translated as compassion, as in Exodus 34:6, the lawyer clearly has no compassion for man robbed and, perhaps, wonders whether he deserved the beating received. Being forgiven of the offense of being a Samaritan (a Jewish prejudice), is accordingly described not as compassion, but as mercy. Thus, the storyteller emphases the emotional distance traveled here by choosing to start with an entirely different word for compassion (ἐσπλαγχνίσθη).

The parable itself uses a lawyer’s trick to make this same point. The lawyer begins this discussion asking who is my neighbor? (Luke 10:29) The word neighbor is a noun and the lawyer asks the question so as to restrict his obligation under the law. Jesus converts the noun (a neighbor) into a verb (to be a neighbor), asking: “Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” (Luke 10:36) In doing this, Jesus converts a limited obligation into one that is potentially limitless. Thus, the emotional distance traveled implied by the word choice above is paralleled by the legal distance traveled implied by the noun-to-verb transformation.

Contending Contexts

In the early church, parables were often interpreted allegorically. With Adolf Jülicher (1857-1938), the focus in interpretation shifted away from allegory. Jülicher believed that parables were “literal speech and self-explanatory” (Kissenger 1979, 76). He often a classification of four types of parables: the simile, the similitude, the fable, and the example story (Kissenger 1979, 72-73). This change in emphasis opened up parables to modern forms of criticism, such as the form criticism: “Rudolf Bultmann notes that every literary category has its of Sitz im Leben (life situation),whether it be worship in its different forms, or work, or hunting, or war.” (Kissenger 1979, 102)

More recent scholarship has focused on the historical context of the parables, of which two are important: Jesus’ context and the context of the early church. For someone living in a hostile environment, public statements must necessarily be veiled in poetic or symbolic language. We see this problem today in political speech where like-minded members of a particular party will speak openly of controversial topics in coded language, poorly understood by outsiders.

Jesus’ context differed from the context of the early church suggesting that he might make allegorical statements whose meaning was lost or deemed less important only a few years later. A modern example might be the allegories found in the Wizard of Oz (1937) film, like the “follow the yellow-brick road”song that referred to the recently abandoned Gold Standard (1931). Today the song is cute, but not obviously a political statement.

Parable’s Sitz in Leben

Mercy is a fitting focus of the story of the Good Samaritan because Jews hated Samaritans. The Samaritan had to overcome prejudice (show mercy) in order to show love to the man left for dead. In the same way, we experience God’s love through his mercy.

James concludes much the same from God’s attributes when he observes: “For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.” (Jas 2:13) Here James has restated Jesus’ Beatitude in the negative—it is a curse to be judged without mercy (see Matt 5:7). Judgment requires truth, which—like love—follows mercy on the list of God’s attributes in Exodus 34:6.

The link between judgment and mercy points us back to the atoning work of Christ, as the Apostle Peter observed:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Pet 1:3–5)

The path to salvation through Christ (and his love) is by way of his mercy.

The Good Samaritan
Also see:
The Face of God in the Parables
The Who Question
Preface to a Life in Tension
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Author site: http://www.StephenWHiemstra.net
Publisher site: http://www.T2Pneuma.com





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