The Greek verb antiparerchomai means to pass by on the opposite side, to go past on the other side of the road. Appearing only twice in the New Testament (Luke 10:31–32), it is the word Jesus uses in the Parable of the Good Samaritan to describe the priest and Levite who deliberately crossed to the far side of the road to avoid the beaten man.
Antiparerchomai is one of the most ethically loaded verbs in the NT. The compound — anti (opposite) + para (beside) + erchomai (to go) — describes deliberate avoidance: not simply passing by, but actively moving to the other side to ensure maximum distance from need. Jesus uses the same verb for both the priest and the Levite — the religious elite of Israel. Their failure is not merely passive neglect but active evasion. The theological sting is that both were Israelites who knew the Torah's commands to love the neighbor. The Samaritan — religiously despised and ethnically mixed — is the one who stops, binds wounds, pays for care, and returns to check. Jesus's question to the lawyer: 'Which of these three do you think was a neighbor?' reframes the entire question — not 'who qualifies as my neighbor?' but 'who was a neighbor?' Antiparerchomai is the word that indicts every religious performance that avoids incarnational love.