Our Great Patron

Patronage is a social system in which people do favors for each other, and it’s important for understanding the setting of the New Testament. It wasn’t until I read Honor, Patronage, Kinship, and Purity: Unlocking New Testament Culture that I finally grasped how the system worked. Now that I understand it, I see how useful it is for reading Scripture in context. My aim is to give a short introduction to the subject and how it illuminates our reading of the New Testament.

First Century Patronage

What is patronage? It’s a social system that affected many social relationships in the Mediterranean world in antiquity. ‘Patrons’ were generally well-to-do individuals who had ‘clients’ whom they would help. Patrons and clients were bound together by social norms and customs. In exchange for help from their ‘patron,’ the client would do what he could to return the favor. Because clients were often unable to fully repay the favor, they instead did what they could to show their gratitude.

This system of patronage extended through most all social strata. On the crust of society, an individual who wanted an important government post might ask his friend to put a good word in for him to the governor. By granting his request, the governor became a ‘patron,’ and the ‘client’ was now indebted to his patron for the patron’s generosity. The friend who put in the good word was a ‘broker.’ Because he had helped his friend to gain the government position, he was also a patron of sorts. Today, we might say that this is corrupt, since the individual receives his post because of his friendships rather than qualifications – but in the ancient world, this was entirely normal.

The system of patronage could be abused. Judges sometimes gave ‘favors’ because of patron-client relationships – an obvious miscarriage of justice. But although it could be abused, the system itself was not corrupt. The challenge of patronage was to be a good and generous patron without showing favoritism. Even today, many people still ‘get the job’ or other benefits because of who they know, rather than what they know. While we like to keep this hidden (and find ourselves bothered when we know about it), the ancients simply accepted it as a matter of course.

On the bottom of the social scale, mistreated slaves might flee an abusive master and find one of their master’s friends to shelter with, begging that friend to intercede for them with their master. Here, also, was a form of patronage, where the slave would become the ‘client’ if the master’s friend helped him. Of course, the slave had nothing that he could give to his new ‘patron,’ but he was still under obligation to express his gratitude.

Grace and Faith in Patronage

This all becomes immediately applicable when we read the New Testament, because the words ‘grace’ and ‘faith’ are words that had connotations of patronage for those who heard them. Regarding ‘grace,’ deSilva states, 

First, grace was used to refer to the willingness of a patron to grant some benefit to another person or group. In this sense, it means ‘favor,’ in the sense of ‘favorable disposition.’…The same word carries a second sense, often being used to denote the gift itself, that is, the result of the giver’s beneficent feelings…Finally, grace can be used to speak of the response of a benefactor and his or her gifts, namely, ‘gratitude.’” (p. 104-105)

Then, he later explains the connotations of ‘faith’:

“It is worth noting at this point that faith…is a term also very much at home in patron-client and friendship relations…In one sense, faith meant ‘dependability.’ The patron needed to prove reliable in providing the assistance he or she promised to grant…A second meaning is the more familiar sense of ‘trust’: the client had to trust the goodwill and ability of the patron to whom the client entrusted his or her need… (p. 115)

By giving these quotes, I am not saying that we should try to see patronage in places where it isn’t. Nor am I implying that the concept of patronage was the first thought that came to mind for first century readers. Instead, I’m noticing that their readings of these words were colored by the systems of patronage that were all around them.

The Obligations of Patronage

For those who engaged in patronage, there were specific obligations on both the patron and the client.

The patron was expected to be generous to his client, without seeking a reward. If the patron chose as his client those who had things that he wanted, and if he granted favors out of a desire to be repayed, then the honor of his gift was tarnished. A good patron gave generously, without expectation of return.

The client was under obligation to his patron. It was expected that the client would seek to do all in his power to show gratitude, even to the degree of repaying the favor in some other situation. Interestingly, the patron was not supposed to expect anything, while the client was fully expected to be under this obligation.

But even if the client could never repay the favor, he could at least express his genuine appreciation. Part of this appreciation could be shown by declaring the honor of the patron, telling others of his generosity, and generally making a ‘big deal’ of the fact that one was client of such a generous patron.

Seneca encourages this, saying “The greater the favor, the more earnestly must we express ourselves, resorting to such compliments as:…’I shall never be able to repay you my gratitude, but, at any rate, I shall not cease from declaring everywhere that I am unable to repay it.” (Ben. 2.24.4)

The author of Psalm 116 expresses a concept very common in patronage relationships. He asks the question

“What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits to me?” (v. 12)

Then he responds with the answer of one who has no ability to repay, but is still under obligation:

“I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD, I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people.” (vv. 13-14)

In other words, he says, he will ‘lift up the cup of salvation’ (accept the favor), ‘call on the name of the Lord’ (acknowledge his dependence on the great ‘patron’), ‘pay my vows’ (be committed to his ‘patron’), and do so ‘in the presence of all his people’ (rendering honor to the ‘patron’ by publicly acknowledging his generosity).

Deity and Patronage

Patronage operated on not merely a personal, but also an organizational level. Great leaders gave favors to cities (such as lavish donations of money or buildings), and the cities then expressed their gratitude to their patron. Many of the monumental inscriptions of the first century are these expressions of gratitude to generous patrons of the city.

A trend that developed faster in the east (the Greek-speaking territories) than the west (the Latin-speaking territories) was the custom of granting divine honors to patrons who gave gifts that were considered to be divine gifts. If an individual could give a gift so large that only the gods were able to give it, should he not receive the honor that gods received? Hence, cities began to acknowledge certain patrons with divine honors, acknowledging them as deities. For example, if a general rescued a city from a deadly siege that would have resulted in the destruction of the city, or if a general ended a long-running war, he was considered to be a patron capable of granting ‘salvation’ or ‘peace’ – divine favors. Hence, the city might declare him worthy of divine honors and refer to him as a god.

The New Testament, of course, acknowledges only God as deserving of divine honors. This is because God, alone, is actually able to give divine favors such as ‘salvation’ or ‘peace.’

God’s patronage is unique in the New Testament because God seeks out those who are at the lowest rung of society. This is unlike traditional patronage, where most patron/client relationships involved only a minor disparity in rank. In the New Testament, the greatest patron (God) reaches down and makes men of the lowest order (sinners) to be his clients. With no way at all to repay his generosity, God lavishes his grace on them, showing himself to truly be the most generous patron.

Though Christians have nothing to offer God in exchange for his patronage, the New Testament constantly sets before us our obligation of gratitude. We are called to declare his name to others, honoring him in the presence of others because of his great generosity to us. Though our works can never repay our debt, we demonstrate our gratitude with ‘the fruit of righteousness’ – not so that we would ‘earn’ God’s favors, but ‘to the glory and praise of God’ (Philippians 1:11) – so that our great Patron would receive honor.

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