Allegorical interpretation

In a biblical context, allegorical interpretation is an approach assuming that the authors of a text (e.g., the Bible) intended something other than what is literally expressed.

The method has its origins in both Greek thought (who tried to avoid the literal interpretations of ancient Greek myths) and in the rabbinical schools of the Land of Israel. Most notably of pre-Christian authors Philo of Alexandria expressly refers to its use by his predecessors and uses it himself to discover indications of different doctrines of philosophy in the stories of the Pentateuch. The traces of allegorical and typological interpretation can be found later in the New Testament but are further developed in the Epistle of Barnabas and especially by Origen.

In the Middle Ages, typology was the dominant Christian allegorical interpretation, which developed sets of correspondences between the Old and New Testaments, believing that the events described in the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament had occurred in order to pre-figure events in the life of Christ in the New; there were other classes of allegory in the Middle Ages.

See also

• Hermeneutics
• Interpretation (aesthetics)
• Exegesis
• Summary of Christian eschatological differences
• Anagogical
• Tropological