<P> Origen described the allegory as follows: </P> <P> The man who was going down is Adam . Jerusalem is paradise, and Jericho is the world . The robbers are hostile powers . The priest is the Law, the Levite is the prophets, and the Samaritan is Christ . The wounds are disobedience, the beast is the Lord's body, the (inn), which accepts all who wish to enter, is the Church....The manager of the (inn) is the head of the Church, to whom its care has been entrusted . And the fact that the Samaritan promises he will return represents the Savior's second coming . </P> <P> John Welch further states: </P> <P> This allegorical reading was taught not only by ancient followers of Jesus, but it was virtually universal throughout early Christianity, being advocated by Irenaeus, Clement, and Origen, and in the fourth and fifth centuries by Chrysostom in Constantinople, Ambrose in Milan, and Augustine in North Africa . This interpretation is found most completely in two other medieval stained - glass windows, in the French cathedrals at Bourges and Sens ." </P>

Where does the phrase good samaritan come from