The Importance of Being Samaritan in the Gospel of Luke

Abstract

While reference to Samaritans is notable in Matthew, and significant in John and the Acts of the Apostles, it is the Gospel of Luke that makes the most of Samaritan identity. The episode of Samaritan inhospitality in Luke 9 occasions an important example of Jesus’ nonviolence and sets up the reader for the impact of the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10), the responsive Samaritan leper (Luke 17), and the sweeping success of the Samaritan mission in Acts 8. Samaritan identity based on “turf” and the right place to worship God illuminates the three narratives in the Third Gospel and the Christian mission in Acts.