* The northern hills were infested with bandits, and this was a common occurrence on the roads. Josephus related an incident in the time of the Emperor Claudius (r. 41-54), on the road from Galilee to Judaea through Samaria. Some Galileans were set upon by Samaritan villagers, and when the Roman authorities dithered the Galileans recruited a local bandit named Eleazar to exact revenge. It escalated into a more than usually bitter conflict between the two groups, which ended up a suit before the Emperor himself. Claudius found for the Galileans and fired the Procurator of Judaea, Ventidius Cumanus, appointing Marcus Antonius Felix, the man who would hear the case of St Paul, in his place. See Antiquities of the Jews XX.6.i-iii.

* The word priest suggests a member of the tribe of Levi who was also descended from Aaron, brother of Moses. They were required to serve in the Temple, performing the daily and holy day offerings.

* Jewish law required that a priest coming into contact with a dead body must undergo tiresome and lengthy purification rites: see Numbers 19:11-13. Since our priest could not see whether the man was dead or not, and had no wish to incur such professionally embarrassing penalties, he broke a commandment which carried no specific penalty (‘love thy neighbour as thyself,’) so as not to risk breaking another that did (‘he that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days’).