The scribe and the priest who saw a wounded traveler on the roadside passed by him because he was

The scribe and the priest who saw a wounded traveler on the roadside passed by him because he was in a position to defile them. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus tells the story of a man who was beaten, robbed, and left for dead on the side of the road. A priest and a Levite passed by the injured man without helping him, but a Samaritan, who was despised by the Jews, stopped to care for him. The reason why the priest and the Levite did not help the man was that they were concerned about becoming ceremonially unclean by touching him, as he was bleeding and they were on their way to perform their religious duties.