Charles Ellicott Commentary Luke 10:30

"Jesus made answer and said, A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho; and he fell among robbers, who both stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead." — Luke 10:30 (ASV)

A certain man went down.—Better, was going down. We enter here upon the first of a series of parables. These parables differ from those in St. Matthew by having more the character of actual human histories that illustrate a truth, rather than mere similitudes (“parables” in the usual sense of the word) composed for the purpose of illustration. There is obviously no reason why we should not believe them to have been statements of facts that had actually happened. For example, the mention of a proper name, Lazarus (Luke 16:20), seems to imply this. These events could have come under our Lord’s observation as He travelled on His work of preaching the gospel of the Kingdom.

From Jerusalem to Jericho.—The journey was one of about twenty-one miles, for the most part through a rocky and desert country, with caves that were then haunted by bands of robbers, as they have been, more or less, in later times by predatory Arabs. In Jerome’s time it was known as the “red” or the “bloody” way, due to the frequency of such crimes.

Fell among thieves.—Better, robbers, as elsewhere.