Xiaohua: 歡迎來到本期的RoundTable詞匯小百科欄目，and Mark is joining us this week, as we talk about Good Samaritans.

Mark: Yeah. It’s a phrase that we hear a lot, I think, Good Samaritan. If we go back to the origins, like many of these phrases that in English language, they either come from the words of Shakespeare or the Bible. Now in this particular case this one comes from the Bible, from the Parable of the Good Samaritan. And in brief it was the story that was told by Jesus. It was about a traveler who was been beaten and robbed, left half dead along the road, a priest came along and totally ignored the man. Then a Levite came by, which is another sect, and ignore the man. Finally though a Samaritan came past, now Samaritans are people from a certain city at that time and Samaritans and Jews generally didn’t get on well. But the Samaritan helped the injured man who was Jewish. Therefore the saying goes that while most of the people crossed the road to the other side and didn’t want anything to do with the situation, the Good Samaritan went and helped this man, regardless of who he was, what his social status was, he helped him simply because he needed help. And that is the basis of western society.

Xiaohua: Samaritan被直接翻譯成中文就是撒馬利亞人或者是樂善好施者。很多人可能也知道這樣一個圣經故事。耶穌講了這樣一個寓言就是說一個猶太人被強盜打劫，受了重傷，躺在路邊。有一個祭司經過，另外呢，還有一個利未人路過，但是他們都不聞不問。只有一個撒馬利亞人路過，但是他不顧教派的隔閡，非常善良的照顧著他，還出錢把猶太人送進旅店。在當時猶太人基本上是看不起撒馬利亞人的。So I guess, yeah, the story tells us that no matter what background you come from, helping people is always a good idea.

Mark: Yes. It is not just people. Say for an example, you saw an animal in distress and helped that, then you could then also be called a Good Samaritan, because now it’s used as a common metaphor. Any person that does a charitable deed, especially one who rescues or helps out a needy stranger could be described as a Good Samaritan. And in fact a number of charitable organizations have used the idea in their name. Samaritans, for example, is an organization in the UK, people who are feeling suicidal depress can call.

Xiaohua: Good Samarian在現代社會中呢，不管是指那些樂善好施的人，也指人們在遇上危險的時候或者危急的時候，伸出援手的人，大概也就是中國人所說的見義勇為的人。Yeah, about this Good Samaritan law thing, it’s quite common in a lot of US states. They try to sort of protect people who volunteer to help from any sort of possible legal responsibilities.

Mark: Yes. This is very interesting, because this would be, for example, if somebody was involved in a motorcycle accident and someone else was first on the scene. You are not supposed to move people in that situation, because you might cause a spine injury, for example. However, if someone didn’t know that, they did try to help them, and then they made the matter worse. Under the Good Samaritan law, as far as I understand it, they wouldn’t leave able be prosecuted because they were trying to help.

Xiaohua: That’s right.美國的很多州都有Good Samaritan law，也有被翻譯成《無償施救者保護法》的，就是說，在緊急狀態下，施救者因為他的施救行為給被救助者造成了一些傷害的時候，這個時候可以免除他的法律責任。

Mark: The thing is that the essence of the Good Samarian is that the Good Samaritan didn’t ask for payment or even thanks.

Xiaohua: Yeah. I think that’s the key thing about being a Good Samaritan. And that wraps up this edition of RoundTable’s word of the week. Thank you, Mark.

Mark: I’ve enjoyed it.