Who was The Good Samaritan? What was his religion, and does it still exist?

Teaching about the parable of the Good Samaritan is standard practice in RE, and for good reasons. It encapsulates essential elements of Jesus’ teaching in a memorable and adaptable story. That’s why pupils are often asked to show their understanding of it by making the Good Samaritan into a modern-day character, but sometimes the process misrepresents the parable.

More attention is needed to who, exactly, the Samaritans were (and are), and this is where research helps. The differences between Jews and Samaritans were religious. The Samaritans accept only the Pentateuch as authoritative, have their own version of it and did not accept Jerusalem-related traditions (they have a commandment to build an altar on Mount Gerizim, near modern-day Nablus).

The open-access journal Religions has a 2020 special edition on the Samaritans, prompted by the fact that despite the fame of the parable, people tend to know little about them. We’ve reported one of the articles on Research for RE. [i] Let’s turn to its key findings. Part of the interest is that some of them are very unexpected.

• The Samaritans of today are a community of about 810 people split between Mount Gerizim, their holy place near Nablus (West Bank) and Holon (Israel).
• According to them, their name comes not from the province of Samaria from which they originate, but from the Hebrew word Shômrîm, which means “the keepers” and, by extension, “the keepers of the Law.”
• The researcher, Fanny Urien-Lefranc, states that although there is debate over their origins, Samaritans are now considered Jews by the Israeli state.
• Kyriat Luza, their village on Mount Gerizim, attracts more and more tourists each year, particularly on the Samaritan Passover, during which about fifty sheep are sacrificed. The ceremony brings together Palestinians, Israelis, and many foreign tourists curious to attend a ritual supposedly representing a centuries-old heritage.
• ‘Cultural entrepreneurs’ make full use of this: there is a market in ‘authentic’ Samaritan foods, amulets, texts, music, etc.
• There are now about 300 Brazilian ‘entrants’ into Samaritanism (there is no concept or method of conversion). This movement began in 2015. Many members have Jewish links and seek an authentic, pure, ancient form of Judaism.
• Migration is not a part of this spreading of Samaritanism out of its historical / geographical roots: it tends to be fuelled by the internet, e.g. a way of identification is to post a Facebook photo of yourself holding a laminated amulet containing a verse in Samaritan Hebrew.

How might you make use of these findings in classroom teaching? Well, they don’t add up to a lesson plan, unless you particularly want to teach a lesson about the Samaritans. They’re more likely to give you ways to refine teaching about the Good Samaritan parable, bringing your teaching into line with what is known about Samaritans.

• Use the findings to explain to pupils the religious differences between Jews and Samaritans.
• If you are adapting the parable to a modern-day setting, or asking pupils to do so, make sure that the religious differences are those reflected. Generic enmity (e.g. supporting a different football team) doesn’t really capture the point. Focusing on the real differences will help develop religious literacy.
• Explore with pupils why Jesus would champion outsiders. Are there other cases where he is an outsider himself? Pupils may be able to identify these, as links with previous learning, or you could supply them. [ii]
• Later, open up more general questions on the basis of learning about the Samaritans. Should religion be a form of tourism? [iii]
• And: are pupils surprised to find Samaritanism spreading in Brazil – or religion moving via the internet, in ways that don’t relate to countries of origin, or people physically migrating from one part of the world to another? Are there clues about the future of religion here?

[i] The Good Samaritan: what was his religion and does it still exist?

The original article is Fanny Urien-Lefranc, From Religious to Cultural and Back Again: Tourism Development, Heritage Revitalization and Religious Transnationalizations among the Samaritans: Religions 2020, 11, 86,  available open-access at https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11020086

[ii]E.g. John 1:46, Luke 6:20-26, Luke 9:58-60.

[iii] See e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDxy795P_gU, which also provides a visual stimulus on Mount Gerizim. Youtube has a range of video materials on Samaritanism.