good Samaritan

A person who selflessly helps others, especially those in distress. Taken from a parable in the Bible in which a Samaritan man was the only person who stopped to help a man who was robbed and beaten. Brad was hailed by the newspaper as a good Samaritan after he stepped in and helped a woman who was being robbed. I might have died out on that trail, if not for a good Samaritan who found me and carried me to safety. It's an outrage! All those people in that train station and not one good Samaritan to help my mother after she'd been knocked down!

See also: good, Samaritan

good Samaritan

A compassionate person who unselfishly helps others, as in In this neighborhood you can't count on a good Samaritan if you get in trouble. This expression alludes to Jesus's parable about a Samaritan who rescues and cares for a stranger who had been robbed and badly hurt and had been ignored by a priest and a Levite (Luke 10:30-35). The Samaritans were considered a heretical group by other Jews, so by using a Samaritan for the parable, Jesus chose a person whom his listeners would find least likely to be worthy of concern. [c. 1600]

See also: good, Samaritan

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

good Samaritan

a charitable or helpful person.

In the Bible, Jesus tells the parable of a man who ‘went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves’ (Luke 10). The first two people who came across him lying stripped and wounded by the side of the road ‘passed by on the other side’. It was the third man, a Samaritan (i.e. a man from Samaria) who took pity on him and helped him.

See also: good, Samaritan

Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

a ˌgood Saˈmaritan

a person who gives help and sympathy to people who need it: He stole money from an old woman while pretending to be a good Samaritan and help carry her shopping.This comes from a story told by Jesus in the Bible.

See also: good, Samaritan

Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

good Samaritan

A selfless helper of anyone in distress. The term comes from the biblical story (Luke 10:30–35) told by Jesus. He compared the treatment accorded to a man, robbed and left half dead, by a priest, a Levite, and a Samaritan. The first two passed him by, but the Samaritan took him to an inn and cared for him. Although the term “good Samaritan” does not appear in any of the translations of this parable, it somehow evolved over the years.

See also: good, Samaritan

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References in periodicals archive

The Good Samaritan is compassion, the ability to enter the chaos of the other and help make meaning out of the chaos.

Our world needs a network of compassion

Jesus now tells the parable of the Good Samaritan as found in Luke 10:30-36.

What the parable of the Good Samaritan means today

The Samaritans, who number around 800 persons living between Nablus, where the majority is found, and Holon inside Israel, hold their Pessah holiday every year in April for seven days, which culminates with the pilgrimage to the top of Mount Gerzim, considered as the location where the prophet Abraham nearly sacrificed his son.

Palestine's Samaritan community celebrates Pessah holiday on Mount Gerzim in Nablus

Volunteers from Samaritans will be handing out teabags and chatting with customers at stations including Paisley Gilmour Street on Monday to raise awareness of how a simple conversation can be lifesaving.

Have a cuppa and a chat at train station on Brew Monday

"Phillip's more than 25 years of experience and unparalleled expertise in health care operations and development will be a great benefit to our organization," added Mary Ann Boccolini, president and CEO of Samaritan Healthcare & Hospice, in a statement.

Heath named chair of Samaritan board of trustees

Through Good Samaritan, we accept requests for an on-air appeal of those who are in need and will find Good Samaritans to help them.

Radio Veritas's 'Good Samaritan' program extended to 2 hours

IN AN ordinary terraced house in Cowbridge Road East lies the Cardiff and District Samaritans branch.

'In that moment of panic and feeling overwhelmed, you need someone to speak to - Samaritans offers that'

Each picks an alias, or Samaritans name, to go by within the four walls of their branch.

Lending a sympathetic ear to those who need it; FEATURE Anna Lewis finds out what it's like to be a listener for the Samaritans

Even though the Samaritan Arabic dialect resembles the local dialect of Nablus, it still preserves some typically Damascene Arabic features, apparently relics of the language of the many Samaritans who fled from Damascus to Nablus in the aftermath of the massacre of 1625.

'Durch Dein Wort ward jegliches Ding!' I 'Through Thy Word All Things Were Made!': 2. Mandaistische und samaritanistische Tagung

One afternoon during the holiday, Samaritan high priest Abdullah Wasef Tawfiq received a group of Palestinians, employees in the tahina factory he owns, from the neighboring village of Beit Furik.

In the West Bank, Samaritans Provide a Sanctuary

Davis continued to support Samaritan Inns by serving as a Co-Chair of Samaritan Inns' current capital campaign, the Campaign for Hope.

Jim Davis, CEO of DAVIS Construction, Joins Samaritan Inns' Board of Directors

"To be handed someone else's child, that's really humbling, that you would be responsible to care for them for that very brief moment", Hannah Hammrick, a Samaritan's Purse volunteer said.

Video of refugees welcomed by 'good samaritans' melts hearts

The story of the good Samaritan has always challenged me.

How to overcome the good Samaritan syndrome

The most striking textual element in this confrontation is the keri u-khetiv regarding the Hebrew word lo in the Samaritan claim for we seek your God, as ye do; and we do sacrifice unto Him [lo] (Ezra 4:2).

THE FIRST CONFRONTATION WITH THE SAMARITANS (EZRA 4)