The Good Samaritan

Charity in the western world was jewish before it was christian. The good samaritan is known for similar acts of charity to day. By making a samaritan, not a fellow jew, the hero of his parable jesus was simultaneously critiquing his own people for not living up to god's commands and insisting that compassion must be shown across ethnic and religious boundaries. Christians did go and do likewise. They took the jewish tradition of charity and showered it on jew and pagan, believer and unbeliever alike.