ODÐ The Samaritan Hypothesis

 ODР

From Offal’s Dictionary of Theology*:

Samaritan Hypothesis, The ▪ The Gospel writers want to create stories around Jesus’ origin that place him in the line of David. They want to mask his being a Samaritan. Yet Jesus’ sympathy for Samaritans, cf. The Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10), his conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4), his traveling back and forth through Samaria rather than around it, his spending time in Samaria, suggest that he could have been one. Then, there is this direct evidence in Luke 17:16 - καὶ ἔπεσεν ἐπὶ πρόσωπον παρὰ τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ εὐχαριστῶν αὐτῷ· καὶ αὐτὸς ἦν Σαμαρίτης. The verse comes in the story of Jesus, on his way between Samaria and Galilee. As he enters a village, ten lepers approach him. They call out for healing, and he sends them to show themselves to the priests. As they go, they are made clean. In the verse in question, one returns and throws himself at Jesus’ feet and thanks him, meaning Jesus; “and he was a Samaritan.” The natural reference of he (αὐτὸς) in this clause is to the third-person masculine directly preceding, him (αὐτῷ), meaning not the leper but Jesus!

 

10.13.19

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 * Author: Stércoré Offal, Refuse Press, 1977.