Book Gospel of Luke Order in the Bible part 3 | Bible part New Testament Category Gospel | |
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Luke 10 is the tenth chapter of the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It records the sending of seventy disciples by Jesus, the famous parable about the Good Samaritan, and His visit to the house of Mary and Martha. The book containing this chapter is anonymous, but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that Luke composed this Gospel as well as Acts.
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This chapter can be grouped (with cross references to other parts of the Bible):
The Parable of the Good Samaritan
This parable is mentioned only in this chapter of the New Testament. Jesus told a story of a traveller (who may or may not have been a Jew) who is beaten, robbed, and left half dead along the road. First a priest and then a Levite come by, but both avoid the man. Finally, a Samaritan comes by. Samaritans and Jews generally despised each other, but the Samaritan helps the injured man. Jesus is described as telling the parable in response to a question regarding the identity of the "neighbour", who Leviticus Lev 19:18 says should be loved.
Portraying a Samaritan in a positive light would have come as a shock to Jesus's audience. 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, poetry, and film. The colloquial 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.