treated with respect and forbearance by Christ, as also by His Apostles after the Resurrection ; and just as His gentleness won the affection and gained the gratitude of publicans and sinners, so also did His treatment of the Samaritans. It was the one Samaritan and not the nine Jews who returned to give thanks (Lk 17^®), and who was contented to Avait for the official verdict, and the freedom it would bring, that he might continue in the com- pany of Jesus ; and all that is related of the con- versation at the well, and of the relations with the villagers of Sychar, reveals the same attractiveness and consideration. True it is that at the beginning of His ministry, and when sending out the Twelve, He directed them not to enter into ' any city of the Samaritans' (Mt 10^) ; but we can well understand the reason for that, when we see that not even the inner circle of the Twelve sufficiently understood the nature of the gospel to be entrusted with such a mission (Lk 9^^). We must also bear in mind that Samaria was designated by our Lord as the first circuit, beyond Judaea proper, that He meant to receive the gospel message. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, too (10-^"^^), He has taken and ennobled that name which till His time was almost a synonym for devil (Jn 8*^), and which no self-respecting Jew would pronounce — even the lawyer evading it (Lk 10^'') when forced to confess that he ' showed mercy on him. ' In view of such feelings between the two peoples, it would have been, in any mere man, an act of almost unpardon- able rashness to have dej)icted to a Jewish audience the Samaritan as an example of noble generosity and of disinterested neighbourliness ; and not only is this what Christ does, but He goes much further. Priest and Levite are put into the balance and outweighed by this wayfaring stranger, and every later point in the picture is incalculably in favour of the Samaritan. He is in the country of the Jews, in a place of bad repute — Talciat ed-dmn, the Ascent of Blood, — in danger from the Jewish peojjle — robbers, friends of the man assisted, — even of insult and rejection by the khan-keeper, and of perhaps being taken and treated as the robber himself. He had every reason for excusing him- self. He and his provisions, especially the wine, were impure, and there was every prospect that it would be an ungrateful task. What must we think of the Lord Jesus Christ, who, in oi^position to every racial prejudice and purely human feeling, depicts with such beauty the hated Cuthsean, and that just after He had been rejected (Lk 9^2-64) \yy the Samaritans in such a manner that the hearts of His disciples Avere filled with bitter indignation ? Controlled by circumstances, or a product of the age in which He lived, could He have risen to this ? See also Gerizim, Jacob's Well, Sychar.
Literature. — Samaritan Pentateuch, London and Paris Polyglotts ; Blayney, Oxford, 1790 ; Petermann-Vollers, Penta- teuchus Samaritanus, Berlin, 1872-89 ; Samaritan 'largum, Briill, Frankfurt a. M. 1873-76 ; Nicholl's Samaritan Grammar, London, 1858 (pedantic); Petermann, 'Linguaj Samaritanae Grammatica,' etc., in Porta Linguar%im Orientalium series; Rosenberg, ' Lehrbuch ' in Hartleben's Bibliothek der Sprachen- ktmde (a compilation, but good) ; Castelli, Lex. Heptaglotten, 1669 ; Gesenius, De Pentateuchi Samaritani ongme, indole, et avctoritate, Halle, 1824 ; Grimm, Die Samaritaner, Munchen, 1854 ; Mills, Nablus and the Modern Samaritans, 1864 ; Kohn, Samaritanische Studien, Breslau, 1868, also Zvr Sprache Litteratur u. Dogma der Samaritaner, Leipzig, 1876 ; Nutt, A Sketch of Samaritan History, Literature, and Dogma, London, 1874 ; Briill, Ztir Gesch. u. Lit. der Samaritaner, Frankfurt, 1876 ; Herdenheim, Bibliotheca Samaritana ; Rappoport, La Liturgie Samaritaine, 1901; Montgomery, The Samaritans,
1907 Wm. M. Christie.
SAMARITAN, THE GOOD (Lk lO^^-^^). — Jesus had bidden His last farewell to Galilee, and was travelling to Jerusalem (Lk 9^^). He had passed through Samaria and reached Judaea, and in some town on the route, probably Jericho, He visited
SAMARITAN (THE GOOD)
SANCTIFY, SANCTIFICATION 561
the wynagogue,* as He was wont (of. Lk 4*^), and (liscoursed to the congregation. It was customary for the hearers, when the preacher had concluded, to ask him (iuestions,t and so it happened on this occasion. One of tliose whose business was tlie interpretation of the sacre<I Law, rose .and asked, ' Teaclier, Avhat shall T do to inherit " eternal life " ? ' He was no anxious inquirer. He thought to dis- play his superior knowledge, and humble Jesus before the congregation ; ancl his question was a foretaste of the dialectical warfare which awaitetl • lesus in Jerusalem, and which reached its climax in tiiat succession of encounters with the rulers in the Temple court during the Passion week. Nor was Jesus deceived. ' ^^'hat stands written in the Law?' He asked, 'how readest thou?' Glad to display his theological prohciency, the lawyer glibly replied, ' Thou shalt love the Lord thj' God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength, and with thy whole mind, and thy neighbour as thyself.' Jesus ac- cei)ted the answer : ' Thou hast answered rightly. This do, and thou shalt live.' The lawyer was an astute controversialist, and he perceived a new ()])ening for disputation. ' Neighbour ' was defined both by the Law and by the Rabbis as a fellow- Israelite, 'a son of thy people,' :]: and he expected that Jesus would give the word a larger signifi- cance, thus exposing Himself to a charge of heresy. He clutched at the opportunity. 'And who,' he asked, ' is my " neighbour '" ? ' Jesus answered with a parable.