The Inn of the Good Samaritan

In Luke's Parable of the Good Samaritan, we are told that the Good Samaritan took the man who was injured "as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho" to an inn (Luke 10). Just off the highway between Jerusalem and Jericho (Hiway 1 - as you crest a hill just not far east of Jerusalem), there is a small building identified by signs as the "Inn of the Good Samaritan." Fr. Gregory had never been to this place before. It was a marvelous find for all of us.

The Jerusalem -Jericho road has always been a major pilgrimage route in the Holy Land. Pilgrims need food and lodging; already in antiquity there was such a facility at the site of the present museum. St. Jerome speaks of this lodging place in connection with the Good Samaritan so facily that it can only be assumed that this was a common association by the 4th Century.

What we found was a small museum with outdoor adn indoor exhibits which focused largely on large format mosaics from the floors of synagogues and Churches. These have been repaired are displayed throughout. There are also other decorations of holy buildings from the Byzantine and Crusaders eras.

There is also at this site the footprint of a ruined Byzantine era church called the Church of the Good Samartian. The Museum has left that footprint intact so that one can easily observe what reamins of the Church. Over these ruins, they have erected an attractive wooden shelter, not only to serve a protective covering for the floor mosaics of the old Church, but to serve as a functioning Church now. New wooden benches have been placed on top of the mosaics, giving this new Church functional and attractive seating. The new Church of the Good Samaritan is surrounded by easily identifiable ruins of earlier buildings on this site and the outdoor displays of the modern museum.

Unfortunately the building housing the more delicate of the Museum's collection was not open the day we visited, but we were able to peer into windows at other samller mosaic fragments and inscriptions. If you are as fond of Mosaic as I, the Inn of the Good Samartican Museum is a great little find on your pilgrimage to Jericho or visit to the Dead Sea.

There are lots more photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/FrBart/0706InnOfTheGoodSamaritan, including several of the New Church of the Good Samaritan.