download - Sekolah Tinggi Theologia Aletheia Lawang

89
T
The Shema‘ And The Parable
of The Good Samaritan
Tan Kim Huat
here is a charitable organisation in Singapore which calls itself
the Samaritans of Singapore (SOS). This is set up to help
people facing crises in life, especially those who are contemplating
suicide. From the ethnic point of view, the name is quite a
misnomer as it is almost certain there are no Samaritans in that
organisation or in Singapore, for that matter. Such a name could be
chosen only because of the parable Jesus told. The central character
of the parable inspired the name.
This parable is also the subject of much study and speculation
by the Christian church. Throughout the long years of church
history, the parable has been understood either in an allegorical or
moral way. The parable was understood in the first few centuries
after the demise of the apostles as telling the story of the fall of
Adam or mankind and their redemption through Christ, who is
represented by the figure of the Samaritan. The details may differ
but the tenor remains the same. 107 Such a line of interpretation
continued even to the 19 th century with no less than a figure as R.C.
Trench 108 advocating it. Since the publication of the work of Adolf
Jülicher, 109 such interpretations have now been largely abandoned
and most scholars working on this parable regard it as an example
107
Famous scholars adopting this approach included Clement, Origen,
Augustine, and Luther.
108
R.C. Trench, Notes on the Parables of our Lord, London: Macmillan, 1870,
p. 37.
109 2
J. Jülicher, Die Gleichnisreden Jesu, Vol. 1, Tübingen, Mohr, 1899. This
was further developed in the classic by J. Jeremias, The Parables of Jesus,
London: SCM, 2 1963.