Origen · a new plain-English translation from the Greek and Latin
Although there are many precepts in the law, the Savior set down in the gospel only these, which by a certain compendium would lead the obedient to eternal life. For this looks to what the teacher of the law had asked him, saying: ‘Teacher, what must I do to possess eternal life?’ — this reading according to Luke has been read to you today. He answered: ‘What is written in the law? How do you read
it? You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole strength, and with your whole mind; and your neighbor as yourself.’ And then: ‘You have answered rightly,’ he said, ‘do this, and you shall live.’ There is no doubt that it is eternal life concerning which both the teacher of the law had asked and
the Savior’s word had been. At the same time we are clearly taught that it is commanded in the law that we love God. In Deuteronomy: ‘Hear, the Lord your God is one,’ and: ‘You shall love your God with your whole mind’ and the rest, and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’ And the Savior bore witness to these things, saying: ‘On these two commandments hang the whole law and the prophets.’
Since the teacher of the law wished to justify himself and to show that no one was his neighbor, and said, ‘Who is my neighbor?’, the Lord brought forward the parable whose beginning is: ‘A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho,’ and so on. He teaches that no one was the neighbor of the man going down, except the one who was willing to keep the precepts and to prepare himself to be a neighbor to every man who needs help. This
indeed is what is set at the end, after the parable: ‘Which of the three seems to you to have been the neighbor of the one who fell among robbers?’ For neither the priest nor the Levite were his neighbors, but, as the teacher of the law himself also answered, ‘the one who showed mercy’ was his neighbor. Hence also it is said by the Savior: ‘Go, and do likewise.’ A certain one of the elders used to say, wishing to interpret the parable,
that the man who went down is Adam, Jerusalem paradise, Jericho the world, the robbers the hostile powers, the priest the law, the Levite the prophets, the Samaritan Christ, the wounds disobedience, the animal the body of the Lord, the inn — that is, the stable — which receives all who wish to enter it, the church... [text corrupt] ...interpreted in this way. Further, that the two denarii are understood as the Father and the Son, the innkeeper as the president of the church, to whom the stewardship has been entrusted. Concerning
the fact that the Samaritan promises that he will return, this prefigured the second coming of the Savior. Although these things are said reasonably and beautifully, it must nevertheless not be supposed that they pertain to every man. For not every man ‘goes down from Jerusalem to Jericho,’ nor do they for that reason dwell in the present age — although he who ‘was sent for the sheep that were lost’ belonging to the house of Israel... The man who ‘from
Jerusalem went down to Jericho’ did so because he himself wished it, and for that reason fell ‘among robbers.’ But the robbers are none other than those of whom the Savior says: ‘All who came before me were thieves and robbers.’ He did not fall among thieves, but among robbers far worse than thieves, who set upon him as he went down from Jerusalem. When he had fallen among them, they stripped him and laid upon him
What are the blows, what are the wounds, by which the man was wounded? Vices and sins. Then, because the robbers who had stripped him and wounded him do not sit beside him naked, but having inflicted blows again they abandon him, it is therefore written: "stripping him and inflicting wounds they went away and left him" — not dead, but half-dead. Now it happened that on that same road first
a "priest" and a "Levite" went down, who perhaps had done good to other men, but not to this one, who had gone down "from Jerusalem to Jericho." For him the "priest" saw — the law, I suppose — the "Levite" saw him — the prophetic word — and when they had seen him, they passed by and left him. For providence was keeping the half-dead man for one who was stronger than the law and the prophets, namely the Samaritan, who is interpreted "guardian
". This is he who "neither slumbers nor sleeps." This Samaritan set out on account of the half-dead man, not "from Jerusalem to Jericho" as the priest and the Levite were going down; rather he went down, and for this reason he went down: to save and guard the one about to die — the one to whom the Jews said: "You are a Samaritan and have a demon," and who, though he had denied having a demon, refused
to deny [being a Samaritan]; for he knew that he was the "guardian." "the guardian." And so, coming to the half-dead man, and having seen him wallowing in his own blood, he approached him in pity, so as to become his neighbor; "he bound up his wounds," pouring in oil mixed with wine, and did not say what is read in the prophet: "there is no poultice to apply, neither oil nor..." This is the "Samaritan," by whose care and help
all who are afflicted are in need — and of his help the Samaritans above all had need, the man who, "going down from Jerusalem," had "fallen among robbers" and, wounded by them, had been left half-dead. But that you may know that it was according to the providence of God that this Samaritan went down, in order to heal the one who had "fallen among robbers," you will be plainly taught from this: that he had with him bandages, with him oil, with him wine — which indeed
I think he was carrying with him not on account of this one half-dead man alone, but on account of others too, who for various causes had been wounded and were in need of bandages and oil and wine — these the Samaritan carried with him. He had "oil," of which it is written: "that he might make the face cheerful with oil" — no doubt the oil of the one who had been healed. "Oil," that the swellings of the wounds might be soothed; but "wine" too cleanses wounds,
mixing in something of its sharpness, and the one who had been wounded he "placed upon his own" — that is, upon his own body, in keeping with the fact that he deigned to take on the nature of man. This Samaritan "bears our sins" and grieves for us; he carries the half-dead man, and brings him into the "inn," that is, into the church, which receives all and denies its help to none, to which Jesus calls everyone, saying: "Come to
me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest." And after he had brought him in, he does not depart at once, but for one day he remains in the stable with the half-dead man and tends his wounds not only by day but also by night, devoting the rest of his care and diligence. And when he wished to set out in the morning, from his tested silver, from his tested money
"he takes two denarii" and honors the innkeeper — no doubt the angel of the church — instructing him to care for the man diligently and bring him through to health, the man whom he himself had also cared for, because of the shortness of the time. The "two denarii" seem to me to be the knowledge concerning the Father and concerning the Son, and the knowledge of the mystery of how the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father, which is given to the angel as a kind of reward,
so that he may care more diligently for the man entrusted to him, and it is promised him that whatever he spends of his own for the healing of the half-dead man will be repaid at once. Truly, according to the Law and the Prophets, this "guardian" of souls, "who showed mercy to the man who had fallen among robbers," made his appearance not so much in word as in deed. Since, then, it is possible, according to what is said, "Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ,"
for us to imitate Christ and to have mercy on those who "had fallen among robbers," to come to them, to bind up their wounds, to pour on oil and wine, to set them upon our own animal and to carry their burdens, the Son of God, exhorting us to such things, speaks not so much to the teacher of the Law as to all of us as well: "Go, and do likewise." If we do likewise,
eternal life in Christ Jesus, to whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen.