Parable of the Good Samaritan

As the apostolic period gave way to the patristic period in the formative years of ecclesiastical Christianity, the fact is that the bureaucratic structure of what would become the Roman Catholic Church was far from a finished product. The second century of Christianity--the patristic period--was when diverse beliefs were programmatically excluded in the service of "the canon of Scripture, the [apostle's] creed, and the institutional structure" (Pagels xxiii). Clement of Alexandria, whose life straddled the late second and early third centuries, was a major opponent of Gnosticism, which rivaled orthodoxy in its mystical approach to faith (Campbell 363), and Origen, his student, extended that tradition. Augustine, who argued orthodoxy against multiple rival doctrines, is their intellectual heir.

These three Christian apologists shared a method of explaining Biblical meanings in terms of symbol and metaphor. Although allegory has a long tradition in biblical exegesis, it is controversial.

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e and the same law" (Clement). He introduces one on his way down from the upland region from Jerusalem to Jericho, and represents him stabbed by robbers, cast half-dead on the way, passed by the priest, looked sideways at by the Levite, but pitied by the vilified and excommunicated Samaritan; who did not, like those, pass casually, but came provided with such things as the man in danger required, such as oil, bandages, a beast of burden, money for the inn-keeper, part given now, and part promised (Clement). Clement closes by quoting the lawyer's answer as the one who showed mercy. But the significant word in Clement's text is that Jesus represents the Samaritan. In other words, Jesus knew very well what he was about when employing metaphor and narrative to make the point. The priest and Levite are personifications of traditional Judaism, and Clement's whole point is that the neighbor-loving person (i.e., the Christian) departs from tradition. Mosaic tradition advised helping friends or friends of friends. Clement's answer: "Do not you judge who is worthy or who is unworthy. For it is possible you may be mistaken in your opinion" (Clement). To treat strangers as neighbors is to "find some one of those who have power with God to s
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