Allegorization of Scripture Has an Ancient History Deviating from the Truth

The Use of History

If you can’t prove your point with scripture, you could rest on history.  You have an apparent old belief, so you provide old quotes to say this is the historical position of the church.  It’s an argument, sure.  As you know, false doctrine is old too.  Also, the majority position, the one that shows up the most in history, could be the broad road that leads to destruction.  No one should miss this.  I understand someone using this line of reasoning, but it isn’t conclusive.

I speak now of the allegorization and spiritualization in the interpretation of covenant theologians and amillennialists and postmillennialists.  They rely on history to back themselves up and throw on the mantle of old writings from professing Christians.  You hear patristics, fathers, and almost entirely Roman Catholics.  This does not represent the narrow way, what is the path of light and truth that started with Jesus, the Apostles, and the inspired writings of the New Testament authors.

Allegorical Interpretation a Departure

From the earliest post-apostolic period, a discernible departure from the literal, historical-grammatical interpretation of scripture began to emerge. This shift was not grounded in apostolic tradition or the teachings of the New Testament churches, but rather in the influence of Hellenistic philosophy and Alexandrian mysticism.  One called a “church father,” Philo of Alexandria (though Jewish), whose allegorical methods deeply impacted later Christian thinkers, laid the groundwork for a non-literal hermeneutic that prioritized mystical meaning over plain sense.  This wasn’t good.  It was a diversion.

The trajectory of interpretation of scripture of Philo and others reached fuller expression in Clement of Alexandria and especially Origen, both of whom explicitly elevated a spiritual sense above the literal. Origen argued that scripture possessed three levels of meaning—literal, moral, and spiritual—and held that the literal was often inferior or even offensive, something to be transcended. This interpretive scheme was foreign to apostolic precedent and marked a stark departure from the exegetical method of Christ and His apostles, who consistently affirmed the historical reliability and literal fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.

Perversion of the Truth and the Church

The center of gravity of the church moved from Jerusalem to Alexandria and then to Rome, so shifting its approach to scripture. The Alexandrian school, represented by Origen and later by Didymus the Blind and Cyril of Alexandria, fostered a method of exegesis that blurred the distinction between divine revelation and philosophical speculation. This was not merely a harmless theological curiosity; it had consequences.

By interpreting Israel allegorically as “the Church,” and prophetic promises as spiritual realities detached from national or eschatological fulfillment, these historically early teachers laid a hermeneutical foundation then institutionalized by Augustine.  Augustine systematized the allegorical approach inherited from Origen and fused it with Neoplatonism, further distancing biblical interpretation from the apostolic pattern. His view of the Church as the City of God and Israel’s promises as spiritually fulfilled in the Church became dogma for centuries to follow.

Displacing Literal Fulfillment

This trajectory of interpretation from Augustine in fact capitulated to human philosophy over divine revelation. It displaced the literal fulfillment of prophecy, corrupted the plain teaching of the Word of God, and prepared the way for both Roman Catholic sacramentalism and later Reformed covenantal supersessionism.  True believers, those with a heritage of obedience to the Bible, should not embrace this as their heritage or use it as proof of originalist thinking.

What began with Origen’s rejection of the literal sense blossomed into full-scale spiritualizing of the Bible that dominated interpretive tradition in the West.  The largest early post-apostolic trajectory of Christendom was marked not by fidelity to the text, but by a shift away from the hermeneutic modeled by Christ and the apostles—a tragic detour that only a return to the biblical, literal method would correct. Covenantal supersessionism, the view that the church replaces or fulfills Israel in God’s covenantal plan, proceeds directly from an allegorical method of interpretation, a hermeneutic foreign to the biblical text itself.

Augustine advanced a trajectory that departed from a literal, grammatical-historical understanding of scripture. Rooted in the Platonic influence of the earlier Alexandrian thinkers, he employed allegory to reinterpret Old Testament promises. Rather than reading the covenants with Abraham, David, and the nation of Israel as literal and unconditional, Augustine viewed them as spiritually fulfilled in the church. This allegorical turn enabled him to subsume national Israel under a spiritualized ecclesiology—redefining Israel, not as a physical nation with future promises, but as the collective body of Christian believers.

Theological Shift

The theological shift embraced by Augustine did not come from exegesis but from a pre-commitment to a philosophical framework that viewed actual reality as inferior to spiritualization or a Platonic ideal.  His allegorical readings blurred the distinction between Israel and the church, turning Old Testament prophecy into spiritual metaphor. Promises of land, kingdom, and restoration—real, tangible elements of the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants—were spiritualized and reassigned to the church.

The implications of the pattern of allegorization and spiritualization are significant: if Israel’s promises are not literally fulfilled, then God’s covenant faithfulness is compromised. Yet this hermeneutic was justified by an eschatology that saw the church as the telos, end, or fulfillment of redemptive history, not as a distinct body alongside Israel but as its replacement.

Supersessionism or Replacement Theology

The allegorical methodology laid the groundwork for covenantal supersessionism to flourish in Roman Catholicism and later Reformed theology. The consequences of Augustine’s allegory are not neutral. They lead to a theological system that erases Israel’s future in God’s plan and undermines the clarity of God’s Word.

Once scripture is untethered from its literal sense, human philosophy becomes the arbiter of divine revelation. This trajectory moves away from the apostolic pattern of interpreting prophecy as literally fulfilled in Christ’s first coming—suggesting that the same should be expected for His second. In short, covenantal supersessionism is not merely a theological conclusion—it is the direct result of an interpretive method that elevates allegory above the plain meaning of Scripture, a tradition that began not with the apostles, but with those like Augustine who departed from their hermeneutic.

More to Come