Luke 10:29

Luke 10:29, in plain English

But wanting to justify himself, the expert asked, 'And who is my neighbor?' He was looking for a loophole, a limit on who he had to love.

Why it's here

When we ask 'who is my neighbor?' we are usually trying to figure out who we do not have to help. Jesus was about to flip the question entirely.

Who's speaking

The expert asks a self-justifying follow-up question.

Where it sits in the story

The expert sensed he was losing control of the conversation. So he threw out a follow-up: who exactly is my neighbor? He wanted a boundary. Jesus was about to blow every boundary apart.

The scholarly reading

The lawyer, thelōn dikaiōsai heauton ('wanting to justify himself'), asks kai tis estin mou plēsion ('and who is my neighbor?'). The verb dikaiōsai reveals his desire to establish the limits of his obligation, seeking a boundary around the command to love that would exclude certain people.

Language and setting

The question 'who is my neighbor?' was a genuine debate in first-century Judaism, with answers ranging from fellow Israelites only to including resident aliens. The lawyer's motive of self-justification sets up the parable that will shatter all such boundary-drawing.

Voice

The legal expert asks a follow-up question motivated by self-justification.

Significance

Wanting to limit his obligations, the lawyer asked the defining question: who qualifies as my neighbor? He was looking for a loophole, a boundary that would let him off the hook. Jesus' answer would demolish every boundary.

27He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

28“You have answered correctly,” Jesus said. “Do this and you will live.”

29But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

30Jesus took up this question and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead.

31Now by chance a priest was going down the same road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

Read all of Luke 10 — A lawyer asks how to inherit eternal life and gets an answer he doesn't expect. The hero of the story is the one everyone despises.