Luke 10:30

30. A certain man--a Jew. from Jerusalem to Jericho--a distance of nineteen miles northeast, a deep and very fertile hollow--"the Temple of Judea" [Trench]. thieves--"robbers." The road, being rocky and desolate, was a notorious haunt of robbers, then and for ages after, and even to this day.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Verse 30. Jesus answering. Jesus answered him in a very different manner from what he expected. By one of the most tender and affecting narratives to be found anywhere, he made the lawyer his own judge in the case, and constrained him to admit what at first he would probably have denied. He compelled him to acknowledge that a Samaritan--of a race most hated of all people by the Jews--had shown the kindness of a neighbour, while a priest and a Levite had denied it to their own countrymen.

From Jerusalem to Jericho. Jericho was situated about 15 miles to the north-east of Jerusalem, and about 8 west of the river Jordan. Mt 20:29.

Fell among thieves. Fell among robbers. The word thieves means those who merely take property. These were highwaymen, and not merely took the property, but endangered the life. They were robbers. From Jerusalem to Jericho the country was rocky and mountainous, and in some parts scarcely inhabited. It afforded, therefore, among the rocks and fastnesses, a convenient place for highwaymen. This was also a very frequented road. Jericho was a large place, and there was much travelling to Jerusalem. At this time, also, Judea abounded with robbers. Josephus says that at one time Herod the Great dismissed forty thousand men who had been employed in building the temple, a large part of whom became highwaymen (Josephus' Antiquities, xv. 7). The following remarks of Professor Hackett, who visited Palestine in 1852, will furnish a good illustration of the scene of this parable. It is remarkable that a parable uttered more than eighteen hundred years ago might still be appropriately located in this region. Professor Hackett (Illustrations of Scripture, p. 215, 216) says of this region:

"It is famous at the present day as the haunt of thieves
and robbers. No part of the traveller's journey is so
dangerous as the expedition to Jericho and the Dead Sea.
The Oriental pilgrims who repair to the Jordan have the
protection of an escort of Turkish soldiers; and others
who would make the same journey must either go in company
with them, or provide for their safety by procuring a
special guard. I was so fortunate as to be able to
accompany the great caravan at the time of the annual
pilgrimage. Yet, in spite of every precaution, hardly
a season passes in which some luckless wayfarer is not
killed or robbed in 'going down from Jerusalem to Jericho.'
The place derives its hostile character from its terrible
wildness and desolation. If we might conceive of the
ocean as being suddenly congealed and petrified when its
waves are tossed mountain high, and dashing in wild
confusion against each other, we should then have some
idea of the aspect of the desert in which the Saviour
has placed so truthfully the parable of the good Samaritan.
The ravines, the almost inaccessible cliffs, the caverns,
furnish admirable lurking-places for robbers. They can
rush forth unexpectedly upon their victims, and escape
as soon almost beyond the possibility of pursuit.

Every circumstance in this parable, therefore, was full
of significance to those who heard it. The Saviour
delivered it near Bethany, on the border of the
frightful desert, Lk 10:25,38. Jericho was a
sacerdotal city. The passing of priests and Levites
between that place and Jerusalem was an everyday
occurrence. The idea of a caravanserai or 'inn' on the
way was not invented, probably, for the sake of the
allegory, but borrowed from the landscape. There are
the ruins now of such a shelter for the benighted or
unfortunate on one of the heights which overlook the
infested road. Thus it is that the instructions of our
Lord derive often the form and much of their
pertinence from the accidental connections of time
and place."

Albert Barnes, 1834 · public domain

Verse 30 And Jesus answering - Rather, Then Jesus took him up. This I believe to be the meaning of the word ὑπολαβων; he threw out a challenge, and our Lord took him up on his own ground. See Wakefield's Testament. A certain man went down from Jerusalem - Or, A certain man of Jerusalem going down to Jericho. This was the most public road in all Judea, as it was the grand thoroughfare between these two cities for the courses of priests, twelve thousand of whom are said to have resided at Jericho. See Lightfoot. Fell among thieves - At this time the whole land of Judea was much infested with hordes of banditti; and it is not unlikely that many robberies might have been committed on that very road to which our Lord refers.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain