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Gen. Rab. 81.3 [on Gen 35.4]), 152 who ends up being the true
confessor of the Shema‗ through his loving the person in need. The
key representatives of Israel‘s religion and cult — priest and Levite
— have failed to do that.
Jesus‘ parable thus answers the lawyer‘s questions in many
ways. First, the true confession of the Shema‗ is to be demonstrated
effectively through the love of neighbour and such true confession
leads one to the life of the age to come (both Jesus and the lawyer
agreed over this point). The giving of the parable is meant to define
the identity of the neighbour and what loving a neighbour means.
Second, Jesus‘ question at the end of the pericope is designed to
elicit the answer from the lawyer that the neighbour in the parable
is the Samaritan. This actually answers the lawyer‘s question of
who his neighbour was which was asked in order that he might
love that person to fulfil the primary praxis of the Shema‗. Jesus
asked in effect, ‗Who has been a neighbour to the person in need‘.
The answer that should be given was, ‗That neighbour was the
Samaritan‘ but that was a name the lawyer could not bring himself
to utter. And so he said, ‗The one who had mercy on him‘ which
actually was a correct answer in some respects but was fraught
with an unwillingness to articulate the despised name. This
demonstrates how entrenched his negative view of the Samaritans
was.
It must be reiterated that, according to the parable, the
Samaritan is neighbour because he believes in the Shema‗ and
practises its primary praxis by following the love command. Being
a true confessor of the Shema‗, he belongs to the covenant
community. If our analysis is on target, there is some form of
repristination going on in Jesus‘ teaching. Using the cue provided
by the lawyer, Jesus harked back to the situation at the founding of
152 For such indications, see J. Jeremias, Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus: An
Investigation into Economic and Social Conditions during the New Testament
Period, Philadelphia: Fortress, 1969, pp. 352-8; C.A. Evans, ‗Samaritans‘, in
C.A. Evans and S.E. Porter (eds.), Dictionary of New Testament Backgrounds,
Downers Grove and Leicester: IVP, 2000, pp. 1059-60.