Howard Thurman and the Quest for Community:
From Prodigals to Compassionate Samaritans
This post is the third on chapter 7 (which covers the first section of the Good Samaritan parable): a couple "digging deeper" insights from the study guide. These are things that I cut from the book itself in final edits but were important enough to be included in the book's study guide.
DIGGING DEEPER
In defense of his honor and authority, Jesus uses the Socratic method, a rhetorical strategy named after Socrates because of the way he forced his interlocutors to answer their own questions, sometimes leading to a result the interlocutor did not like but had to affirm explicitly. The same fourfold pattern occurs twice in the two sections (or “rounds”) of this encounter. The lawyer asks a question (10:25, 29); Jesus responds with a counterquestion (10:26, 36); the lawyer answers (10:27, 37); Jesus responds with an answer demanding action: “do this and you will live” (10:28) and “go and do likewise” (10:37).
And, against those who argue that the priest and Levite were "following the law":
Jews were required to assist a neglected corpse, or, “for most Jews,” to save a life (Snodgrass 2018, 355, 738 n.129): “Laws were suspended when life was endangered.” Similar sentiments about the necessity of burying a neglected corpse are found in Josephus (Against Apion 2.211; Antiquities 5.317; Jewish War 3.377; 4.317) and Philo (Hypothetica 7.7). Compare how Tobit, who “walked in the ways of truth and righteousness” all his life (Tobit 1:3) retrieved, cared for, and buried the corpse of a murdered man during Pentecost (Tobit 2:1– 8). The priest and Levite fail to live up to Tobit’s example. “Half dead” also could involve the principle that saving a life supersedes almost any other requirement (e.g., m. Yoma 8:6: “Whenever there is doubt whether life is in danger this overrides the Sabbath”).
For more, please see chapter 7 of the book.
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