On the Samaritan Origins of Christianity [Part One]

There is an unusually cryptic reference at the end of the first book of the Stromata, written c. 193 CE, by Clement of Alexandria.  No reasonable person could possibly guess that it would lead us back to the Samaritan origins of Christianity.  It is simply an unusual statement - one of many in the writings of this Church Father.  We read:

δεῖ δὴ τὴν διοικοῦσαν πρόνοιαν κυρίαν τε εἶναι καὶ ἀγαθήν. ἀμφοῖν γὰρ ἡ δύναμις οἰκονομεῖ σωτηρίαν, ἣ μὲν κολάσει σωφρονίζουσα ὡς κυρία, ἣ δὲ δι' εὐποιίας χρηστευομένη ὡς εὐεργέτις. ἔξεστι δὲ μὴ εἶναι ἀπειθείας υἱόν, ἀλλὰ μεταβαίνειν ἐκ τοῦ σκότους εἰς ζωὴν καὶ παραθέντα τῇ σοφίᾳ τὴν ἀκοὴν νόμιμον εἶναι θεοῦ δοῦλον μὲν τὰ πρῶτα, ἔπειτα δὲ πιστὸν γενέσθαι θεράποντα, φοβούμενον κύριον τὸν θεόν, εἰ δέ τις ἐπαναβαίη, τοῖς υἱοῖς ἐγκαταλέγεσθαι, ἐπὰν δὲ ἀγάπη καλύψῃ πλῆθος ἁμαρτιῶν, μακαρίας ἐλπίδος τελείωσιν αὐξηθέντα ἐν ἀγάπῃ ἐκδέχεσθαι τοῦτον ἐγκαταταγέντα τῇ ἐκλεκτῇ υἱοθεσίᾳ τῇ φίλῃ κεκλημένῃ τοῦ θεοῦ, ᾄδοντα ἤδη τὴν εὐχὴν καὶ λέγοντα· γενέσθω μοι κύριος εἰς θεόν.

It is essential, certainly, that the providence which manages all, be both supreme and good. For it is the power of both that dispenses salvation -- the one correcting by punishment, as supreme, the other showing kindness in the exercise of beneficence, as a benefactor. It is in your power not to be a son of disobedience, but to pass from darkness to life, and lending your ear to wisdom, to be the legal slave of God, in the first instance, and then to become a faithful servant, fearing the Lord God. And if one ascend higher, he is enrolled among the sons. But when "charity covers the multitude of sins," by the consummation of the blessed hope, then may we welcome him as one who has been enriched in love, and received into the elect adoption, which is called the beloved of God, while he chants the prayer, saying, "Let the Lord be my God." [Clement Stromata 1.27.173]

There are so many ideas contained in this short section of text, it is difficult to make out exactly what Clement is driving at.  Nevertheless by the end of our analysis we will find ourselves facing the mount Gerizim, the holiest place on earth for Samaritans and many Jews at the turn of the Common Era.[1]

We should immediately recognize passage is rooted in the traditional Alexandrian Jewish conception of the godhead.  We learn from Philo God made himself known to the world through two principal heavenly powers.  The first ὁ κύριος, the Greek translation of the Hebrew יהוה, the power who is understood to dispense 'chastisements' (σωφρονίζουσα) upon humanity.  The other is θεὸς, identified specifically as ὁ χρηστὸς θεὸς 'the kind God' in the writings of Philo, the power associated with 'beneficence' (εὐποιία).[2]  The names appear in early Alexandrian writings but also at the Marcionite inscription discovered in Deir Ali, Syria, one of the oldest remains of Christian gathering house.[3]

Yet Clement has in mind the 'prayer' (εὐχὴν) of Jacob in Gen 28:21 LXX which scholars have puzzled over for centuries. After experiencing his vision of angels and the ladder from heaven, Jacob names the place 'Bethel' and proceeds to make a most unusual vow:

If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and clothing to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God. and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house; and of all that you give me, I will give the tenth to you.

The natural reading of the material would suggest that Clement is interested in the passage because of Jacob's vow to make Yahweh his god.  Yet anyone making this assumption would be sorely mistaken.  Clement's is certainly channeling Philo's exegesis of the material which - strangely - understands Jacob to have turned away from ὁ κύριος and vowed to devote himself to θεὸς.

The first reference to the passage in the writings of Philo appear in De Plantatione where after citing citing the appearance of the two divine names together in Gen 21:33 LXX - ἐπεκαλέσατο τὸ ὄνομα κυρίου θεὸς αἰώνιος - explains:

the appellations already mentioned reveal the powers existing in the living God; for one title is that of Lord, according to which he governs; and the other is God, according to which he is beneficent. For which reason also, in the account of the creation of the world, according to the most holy Moses, the name of God is always assumed by him: for it was fitting that the power according to which the Creator, when he was bringing his creatures into the world, arranged and adorned them, should be invoked also by that creation. Inasmuch, therefore, as he is a ruler, he has both powers, that, namely, of doing good, and that of doing harm; regulating his conduct on the principle of requiting him who has done anything. But inasmuch as he is a benefactor, he is inclined only to one of these two courses, namely, to do good. And it would be the greatest possible advantage to the soul no longer to feel any doubt about the power of the King for both purposes, but steadily to emancipate itself from the fear, which is suspended over it, on account of the vastness of his authority, and to kindle and keep alive a most firm hope of the acquisition and enjoyment of blessings arising from his being beneficent by deliberate intention. Now the expression, "everlasting God," is equivalent to, God who bestows gifts, not sometimes giving and sometimes not, but always and incessantly; it is equivalent to, God who does good uninterruptedly; to God who, without intermission, is connecting a flow of benefits, coming one after the other; God, who pours forth blessings upon blessings, who is made up of mercies connected and united; God, who never omits any single opportunity of doing good; God, who is also the Lord, so that he is able to injure.

This also Jacob, the practiser of virtue, asked at the end of his most holy prayers. For he said, "And the Lord shall be to me as God." Which is equivalent to: He will no longer display towards me the despotic power of his absolute authority, but rather the beneficent influence of his universally propitious and saving power, utterly removing the fear with which he is regarded as a master, and filling the soul with affection and benevolence as felt towards a benefactor. What soul could ever conceive thus that the master and ruler of the universe, without changing anything of his own nature, but remaining in the condition in which he always was, is continually kind and uninterruptedly bounteous? owing to which he is, to those who are happy, the most perfect cause of unlimited and overflowing blessings. And to trust in a king who is not by reason of the magnitude of his authority elated so as to do injury to his subjects, but who, through his love to mankind, prefers that every one should enjoy happiness without fear, is the greatest possible bulwark of prosperity and security. [De Plantatione 88 - 93]

Here Philo refers to the vow in Gen 28:21 with the same terminology employed by Clement - εὐῶν - and the same idea of two powers in heaven appears.  It is difficult to argue that Clement is appropriating his ideas from the Jewish Alexandrian master.

Yet isn't it heretical to suggest that Jacob outgrew 'the Lord' and embraced another being - God - instead?The very same idea is reinforced by another passage from Philo's De Somniis only now we see a tripartite division of humanity which lines up with Clement's grades of 'fear of God,' 'being enrolled among the sons' and 'elect adoption' (ἐκλεκτῇ υἱοθεσίᾳ) which is called beloved of God (τῇ φίλῃ κεκλημένῃ τοῦ θεοῦ).  Philo intimates earlier that Jacob represents the individual who rises from the lowest ranks (fear) and proceeds to the two next steps to perfection embodied by Abraham and Isaac:

But do not fancy that it is an accidental thing here for him to be called in this place the God and Lord of Abraham, but only the God of Isaac; for this latter is the symbol of the knowledge which exists by nature, which hears itself, and teaches itself, and learns of itself; but Abraham is the symbol of that which is derived from the teaching of others; and the one again is an indigenous and native inhabitant of his country, but the other is only a settler and a foreigner; for having forsaken the language of those who indulge in sublime conversations about astronomy, a language imitating that of the Chaldaeans, foreign and barbarous, he was brought over to that which was suited to a rational being, namely, to the service of the great Cause of all things. Now this disposition stands in need of two powers to take care of it, the power that is of authority, and that of conferring benefits, in order that in accordance with the authority of the governor, it may obey the admonitions which it receives, and also that it may be greatly benefited by his beneficence. But the other disposition stands in need of the power of beneficence only; for it has not derived any improvement from the authority which admonishes it, inasmuch as it naturally claims virtue as its own, but by reason of the bounty which is showered upon it from above, it was good and perfect from the beginning; therefore God is the name of the beneficent power, and Lord is the title of the royal power. What then can any one call a more ancient and important good, than to be thought worthy to meet with unmixed and unalloyed beneficence? And what can be less valuable than to receive a mixture of authority and liberality? And it appears to me that it was because the practiser of virtue saw that he uttered that most admirable prayer that, "the Lord might be to him as God;" (Gen 28:21) for he desired no longer to stand in awe of him as a governor, but to honour and love him as a benefactor. Now is it not fitting that even blind men should become sharpsighted in their minds to these and similar things, being endowed with the power of sight by the most sacred oracles, so as to be able to contemplate the glories of nature, and not to be limited to the mere understanding of the words? But even if we voluntarily close the eye of our soul and take no care to understand such mysteries, or if we are unable to look up to them, the hierophant himself stands by and prompts us. And do not thou ever cease through weariness to anoint thy eyes until you have introduced those who are duly initiated to the secret light of the sacred scriptures, and have displayed to them the hidden things therein contained, and their reality, which is invisible to those who are uninitiated. It is becoming then for you to act thus; but as for ye, O souls, who have once tasted of divine love, as if you had even awakened from deep sleep, dissipate the mist that is before you; and hasten forward to that beautiful spectacle, putting aside slow and hesitating fear, in order to comprehend all the beautiful sounds and sights which the president of the games has prepared for your advantage. [De Somniis 1.161 - 165]

Abraham is a figure of knowledge gained by instruction (διδασκoμεvης). Abraham needs both powers, punishing and kindly powers, called Lord and God, whereas Isaac needs only the kind power that is called God (Somn 1:162). The previous interpretations of ladder and mediators are thus echoed. To a new understanding, to understanding divinity as God (κυριoς εις θεov) man is exhorted in Somn 1:163, and the text quoted the prayer of Jacob in Gen 28:21.