δικαιῶσαι ἑ., to keep up his character as a righteous man, concerned in all things to do his duty. Hence his desire for a definition of “neighbour,” which was an elastic term. Whether Lk. thinks of him as guilty of evasion and chicanery is doubtful. It was not his way to put the worst construction on the conduct even of scribes and Pharisees. πλησίον, without article, is properly an adverb = who is near me? But the meaning is the same as if ὁ had been there.

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Old Testament