Luke 10:31: KATEBAINEN

From: Mark Goodacre (M.S.GOODACRE@bham.ac.uk)
Date: Fri Jul 23 1999 - 13:00:22 EDT


It occurred to me recently that the way we read the Good Samaritan
(Luke 10.25-37) depends partly on whether or not we see the priest
walking towards Jerusalem or away from Jerusalem. If he is on his
way to Jerusalem he might be passing by on the other side because he
is attempting to avoid corpse impurity -- he thinks the man may be
dead and since he is on his way to the temple, he does not want to
risk corpose impurity (Lev. 21.1-3). This, at least, is the way that the
parable is read by E. P. Sanders and others.

B-Greek is not, of course, the place to delve into possible meanings at
a pre-Lucan stage but I am interested in whether Luke's text as we
have it makes it clear that the priest is not walking towards Jerusalem,
as the above interpretation would require. Clearly the man in the ditch
was on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho (KATEBAINEN APO
IEROUSALHM EIS IERIXO, v. 30). It is then said that the priest
KATEBAINEN the road (v. 31). My instinct is to read this as
implying that he, too, is going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Is this
necessarily the case, in which case we can rule out the interpretation
involving corpse impurity and the temple? Or might KATABAINW
be used more casually of travelling on a road?

Thanks for any help.

Mark
--------------------------------------
Dr Mark Goodacre mailto:M.S.Goodacre@bham.ac.uk
  Dept of Theology tel: +44 121 414 7512
  University of Birmingham fax: +44 121 414 6866
  Birmingham B15 2TT United Kingdom

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