Parable of the Good Samaritan Snodgrass writes that "While one cannot exclude that Luke has joined two originally separate narratives, evidence for this is not convincing." The "Oxford Bible Commentary" notes: The unexpected appearance of the Samaritan led Joseph Halévy to suggest that the parable originally involved "a priest, a Levite, and an Israelite", in line with contemporary Jewish stories, and that Luke changed the parable to be more familiar to a gentile audience." Halévy further suggests that, in real life, it was unlikely that a Samaritan would actually have been found on the road between Jericho and Jerusalem, although others claim that there was
Parable of the Leaven the Church. As with the Parable of the Lost Coin, this parable is part of a pair, in which the first parable describes Jesus' work in terms of a man's agricultural activities, and the second in terms of a woman's domestic activities. Joel B. Green writes that Jesus "asks people — male or female, privileged or peasant, it does not matter — to enter the domain of a first-century woman and household cook in order to gain perspective on the domain of God." The large quantity of flour may hint at a planned festive occasion, since the bread produced could