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What makes a divine spell divine?

Seems to me that it’s a question of the caster of the spell and how it’s being cast rather than the spell itself. After all a cleric casting a domain spell that is “normally arcane” is still a divine spell otherwise said cleric could use their ability to cast such spells to fulfill other prerequisites such as the requirements to become a Mystic Therge for instance without needing more than a single level in an arcane spell casting class.

So if bonus cleric spells are considered divine because they can be cast as divine spells then wouldn’t that hold true for other spell casting classes as well? Wouldn’t an Elf oracle’s bonus spells also be considered divine because they are being cast by a divine spell caster? And would that still remain true even if that Elf was an Ancient Lorekeeper (Oracle, Advance Race Guide page 24)?

The problem then becomes one of the Ancient Lorekeepers abilities and that’s Elven Arcana

Elven Arcana (Ex): At 2nd level, an ancient lorekeeper’s mastery of elven legends and philosophy has allowed her to master one spell used by elven wizards. She selects one spell from the sorcerer/wizard spell list that is at least one level lower than the highest-level oracle spell she can cast. The ancient lorekeeper gains this as a bonus spell known. The spell is treated as one level higher than its true level for all purposes. The ancient lorekeeper may choose an additional spell at 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, 12th, 14th, 16th, and 18th levels. This ability replaces the bonus spells she would normally gain at these levels from her chosen mystery.

Fallowing this logic, any spell on the wizard/sorcerer spell list 8th level and lower could then be considered a divine spell in the right hands. If this is true then another entry in the Advanced Race guide becomes a bit more of an issue and that’s on page 198 for the Samsarans.

Mystic Past Life (Su): You can add spells from another spellcasting class to the spell list of your current spellcasting class. You add a number of spells equal to 1 + your spellcasting class’s key ability score bonus (Wisdom for clerics, and so on). The spells must be the same type (arcane or divine) as the spellcasting class you’re adding them to. For example, you could add divine power to your druid class spell list, but not to your wizard class spell list because divine power is a divine spell. These spells do not have to be spells you can cast as a 1st-level character. The number of spells granted by this ability is set at 1st level. Changes to your ability score do not change the number of spells gained. This racial trait replaces shards of the past.

Not really a problem for divine spell casters, it’s not that far of a stretch from what Lorekeepers can do, right? But what about a Samsaran arcane spell caster? Sure divine Samsarans can open up the vast majority of arcane spells to learn as divine spell by fallowing the bonus spell/caster path, but what about the reverse? Can a Samsaran wizard learn Heal or Raise Dead? I haven’t found a path that would allow them to do so yet (that doesn’t mean it’s not there though). Is this the intent of Paizo? Should divine casters have the spell options open up and not the arcane casters?

Am I understanding this correctly?

I don’t know, seams that this rule can be cleaned up/polished a bit. Seames that either a note excluding bonus spells granted from the possible choices or opening up the choices for arcane casters would be preferable. We can take some que’s from Wish and Miracle on how to handle this, something like,

“You may choose any spell 2 levels or lower than the maximum spell level for your class to add to your spell list for that class, these spells do not have to be spells you can cast as a 1st level character, however the choice must be made at 1st level and cannot be changed once made.”

Note, this would mean that a wizard or cleric could choose up to 7th level non class spells to use for their class while paladins and rangers would be limited to 2nd level non class spells for theirs. Again it keeps in line with the established precedence established from spells like Wish and Miracle.

Something along these lines also helps plug a nasty little loophole created by the spell Paragon Surge, but that’s a different topic and one that could be solved by specifying in the spell “any one combat feat”. I haven’t heard of anyone trying to use that spell to get around item creation feats, but I suppose that’s only a matter of time and again a different topic.

So any ideas, thoughts or comments about what makes a divine spell divine and its interaction/impactions in regards to Samsarans?