ὁ ποιήσας, etc. If the lawyer was captious to begin with he is captious no longer. He might have been, for his question had not been directly (though very radically) answered. But the moral pathos of the “parable” has appealed to his better nature, and he quibbles no longer. But the prejudice of his class tacitly finds expression by avoidance of the word “Samaritan,” and the use instead of the phrase ὁ ποιήσας τὸ ἔλεος μετʼ αὐτοῦ. Yet perhaps we do him injustice here, for the phrase really expresses the essence of neighbourhood, and so indicates not only who is neighbour but why. For the same phrase vide Luke 1:58; Luke 1:72. This story teaches the whole doctrine of neighbourhood: first and directly, what it is to be a neighbour, viz., to give succour when and where needed; next, indirectly but by obvious consequence, who is a neighbour, viz., any one who needs help and whom I have opportunity and power to help, no matter what his rank, race, or religion may be: neighbourhood coextensive with humanity.

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Old Testament