Samaritan

Related to Samaritan: Samaria

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.
See also: good, Samaritan
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

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.

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

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

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
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • a good Samaritan
  • good Samaritan
  • change off
  • frog in a small pond
  • big fish in a small pond
  • big frog in a small pond
  • a big fish in a small pond
  • a big frog in a small pond
  • pond
  • hanger-on
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.
Jesus now tells the parable of the Good Samaritan as found in Luke 10:30-36.
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.
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.
"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.
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.
IN AN ordinary terraced house in Cowbridge Road East lies the Cardiff and District Samaritans branch.
Each picks an alias, or Samaritans name, to go by within the four walls of their branch.
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.
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.
Davis continued to support Samaritan Inns by serving as a Co-Chair of Samaritan Inns' current capital campaign, the Campaign for Hope.
"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.
The story of the good Samaritan has always challenged me.
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).