The Priest and Levite as Temple Representatives: The Good Samaritan in the Context of Luke's Travel Narrative - Hardcover

by Michael Blythe (Author)

The parable of the good Samaritan is well-known, yet scholarship has not plumbed the depths of its meaning within its first-century Palestinian context. For the majority of Christian history, the parable has suffered either from extreme allegorical treatments or from unimaginative readings limiting the parable to a single-point example story of virtue. A creative reading employing social and historical methods generates a refreshing telling of the story, within Jesus's context, whereby each variable, from the Samaritan to the priest and even the innkeeper, takes on representative forms, not only indicative of widespread concerns from Jesus's audience, but also becoming symbols of the eschatological age when the new temple supplants the old.

Author Biography

Michael Blythe is a faculty member of biblical studies at Nations University (New Orleans) and is a graduate of Reformed Theological Seminary and Africa Nazarene University. His work on Luke-Acts has been published in numerous academic journals and presented at several conferences including the British New Testament Society and the Society for Biblical Literature.