Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 76:1 (NA 2025)
Article: The Good Samaritan And The Hope For Kingdom Restoration (Luke 10:25–37)
Author: John A. Davies

TynBull 76:1 (2025) p. 153

The Good Samaritan And The Hope For Kingdom Restoration (Luke 10:25–37)

John A. Davies

Honorary Research Associate
Australian University College of Divinity
[email protected]

Abstract

This article considers the parable of the Good Samaritan within the framework of Luke’s concern with the restoration of a united kingdom of Israel. This long-anticipated reintegration of North and South, Samaritan and Jew, through the exercise of God’s compassion, parabolically demonstrated in the actions of a merciful Samaritan, and evidenced in the Samaritan responses to Jesus and the apostolic proclamation in Luke-Acts, is to be reflected in the brotherly compassion to which God’s one people are called.

1. Introduction

The most familiar of all of Jesus’s parables, the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:30–35, is framed by a discussion Jesus has with a certain lawyer (νομικός τις, vv. 25–29, 36–37) concerning what is needed to be done in order to inherit eternal life. As Sylvia Keesmaat observes, Luke’s context is key to grasping the significance of the parable, though Keesmaat, along with most commentators, does not make full use of contextual issues in her ensuing discussion.1

TynBull 76:1 (2025) p. 154

The parable is often taken as a simple lesson in good neighbourliness: the need to show kindness to strangers in need.2 To others, particularly many Protestants who expect a more christologically focused response to the lawyer’s question in terms of faith in Jesus, and considering the focus on faith in Jesus’s Galilean ministry (Luke 5:20; 7:9, 50; 8:12, 13, 25, 48, 50), the answer Jesus gives, in terms of doing the commandments and the illustrative parable, is surprising if not disturbing. What has not been fully explored in discussions of the parable is how our understanding might be enhanced by considering it within the context of Luke’s interest in the eschatological hope for a reunion of Israel’s divided kingdom under its Messiah. Luke’s concern with the restora...