Good samaritan

[juliely]

What was the profession of the good samaritan?
Thanks

[dove]

helping people????

[Quizmonster]

I believe that Luke is the only gospel which refers to the story. Certainly the Samaritan's profession is not mentioned there. It would seem to be irrelevant to the story in any case, the point of it being that the injured traveller could normally expect a Samaritan - of all people - to be least likely to help him at all...ie be "a good neighbour".

[Alibobs]

I seem to think he was an accountant/taxman but don't know for sure

[juliely]

Thanks everyone, I cannot find it anywhere. I did have a feeling he was a tax collector , something like that. I will have to ask my local clergyman.

[Quizmonster]

Click here for a modern rendering of the parable. As you can see, there is no reference to any profession for the Samaritan, though lawyers and priests are mentioned in the course of the story in reference to other people.

[Quizmonster]

My apologies for all that underlining above...it certainly was not intentional! Click here for the King James Version of the Bible's account of the story. No profession is mentioned there either. May I ask, Julie, why you think it was or where the question about it came from?

[Quizmonster]

By the way, a tax-collector was called a 'publican' in the New Testament...it had nothing to do with keeping a pub!

[juliely]

The question is from the Wragby Swimming Pool fundraising quiz.

[biley]

Well if the question is as you put it, then as stated above the answer is we simply do not know.

[smouse]

It starts with the letter m

[biley]

What starts with the letter m, smouse?

[smouse]

The answer starts with the letter m. I dont know the answer but the answers to the whole quiz spell out a phrase and so this answer must start with an m.

[biley]

Thanks smouse - appreciate you coming back and clarifying what you mean. Would love to know what the compiler thinks the answer to this is. Merchant maybe? Just guessing.

[smouse]

I've tried medic or moneylender but cant find any reference

[Quizmonster]

The phrase "the good Samaritan" is clearly a reference to the person in the New Testament parable who helped the injured traveller, as opposed to just anyone who does a good deed and who might well be described as "a good Samaritan".
As I have already pointed out, the 'standard' Bible simply does not say what his profession was. It may well be, however, that some fringe religious group has decided that he followed a particular career. Is the Wragby Swimming Pool run by Jehovah's Witnesses, say? That might be a clue as to which 'Bible' you need to consult.
The word 'Samaritan' itself just means a native of Samaria, a district of Palestine.
When you finally get the answer, Julie, you really must come back to us and tell us what it was. It would be even more fascinating if you could persuade the organisers to explain where they got the answer from! Cheers