Leo Tolstoy Archive


The Teaching of Christ Narrated for Children
Chapter 25


Written: 1908
Source: From RevoltLib.com
Transcription/Markup: Andy Carloff
Online Source: RevoltLib.com; 2021


Leo Tolstoy

Jesus taught people that all people are the children of one Father, and therefore the entire law of God is in the love for God and for the closed one. And one law maker, knowing this, wanted to take Jesus at his word and to show him that not all people are the same and that people of different nations cannot equally be the children of God. And he asked Jesus: "You teach that we need to love our neighbor. But who is my neighbor?” And Jesus answered him by this parable. He said: “There was a rich Jew. And it so happened that when this Jew this was returning home, he was attacked by robbers; they have beaten him, robbed and dumped him on the road. A Jew priest passed by; he saw the beaten Jew, but did not stop and walked past. A Jew Leviticus passed by and also saw the beaten one and also passed on. And a man from a foreign nation, Samaritan, walked by the same road. And this Samaritan saw the beaten Jew and did not think that Jews considered Samaritans not the closed ones but the strangers and the enemies, but took pity of the Jew, lifted him up, took him on his donkey to a hotel, washed him, bandaged his wounds, paid money for the hotel, and left only when he was no longer needed to the beaten man.”

“You are asking, who is the neighbor?” Jesus said. “The one who has love, who regards every human being as his neighbor, regardless of what nation he is from.” (Luke 10, 25-37)

Questions:
1) How did the law maker want to trick Jesus?
2) Who is the neighbor?