The Heritage of the Ancient Turn toward Allegorization as a Hermeneutic

Part One

Allegorical interpretation of scripture began to take shape in the pre-Christian era with Jewish scholars like Philo of Alexandria, who sought to reconcile Hebrew scriptures with Greek philosophy. By the 2nd century AD, early Christian thinkers like Origen adopted and expanded this method, viewing the Bible as containing hidden, spiritual meanings beneath its literal text. They argued that allegories unveiled deeper truths, so they prioritized philosophical constructs over the plain meaning of the words.

The allegorical approach appealed to intellectual elites, but it diverged from the grammatical-historical method, which emphasizes the author’s intended meaning within its historical and linguistic context.  In contradiction to a biblical model, rooted in the clarity and sufficiency of Scripture (2 Timothy 3:16-17), allegorical interpretation obscures God’s revealed truth by imposing external frameworks.

Aquinas and then the Reformers

The Alexandrian school’s influence persisted, embedding allegory in patristic and medieval theology.   Figures like Thomas Aquinas blended literal and allegorical readings. This system, though creative, allowed interpreters to find meanings the biblical authors never intended. Such practices clashed with a biblical hermeneutic that insists on scripture’s perspicuity and the Holy Spirit’s role in illuminating its plain meaning (1 Corinthians 2:14).  Then Reformers like Martin Luther and John Calvin selectively incorporated elements of Alexandrian allegorism into their theological frameworks.

Alexandrian methods influenced the Reformation indirectly through Augustine, who blended allegorical and literal approaches and was a major theological authority for the Reformers.  The Alexandrian school’s allegorical method left a lasting imprint on Christian hermeneutics, the Reformers embracing this tradition through the patristics, including and particularly Augustine.  Allegorization spiritualized scripture by prioritizing symbolic meanings over literal historical or eschatological interpretations. This set a precedent for later Christian theology to emphasize spiritual truths over physical or temporal expectations, such as a literal messianic kingdom.

Impact on Amillennialism

Amillennialism, the view that there is no literal thousand-year reign of Christ on earth (as described in Revelation 20), emerged partly from this allegorical approach. Early church fathers like Origen (c. 185–254) and Augustine (354–430) interpreted apocalyptic texts, such as Revelation, symbolically. For them, the “millennium” was not a future earthly kingdom but a present spiritual reality, often equated with the church age or the reign of Christ in believers’ hearts.

Philo’s allegorical method encouraged early Christians to see eschatological prophecies as symbolic of spiritual realities rather than physical events. For example, promises of a restored Israel were reinterpreted as fulfilled in the church, not a literal Jewish nation.  Augustine’s City of God solidified amillennialism by arguing that the church is the kingdom of God on earth, and Revelation’s imagery is spiritual, not literal. His allegorical reading diminished expectations of a future earthly reign, aligning with the spiritualizing trend from Philo through Alexandrian theology.

Covenant Theology

Covenant theology, which emphasizes the continuity of God’s redemptive plan through covenants (e.g., covenant of grace), also owes much to allegorical interpretation. This framework sees the church as the fulfillment of Old Testament promises to Israel, rather than a distinct entity awaiting a literal restoration.

By interpreting Old Testament prophecies about Israel (e.g., land, temple, kingdom) as spiritually fulfilled in the church, theologians like Augustine and later Reformers (e.g., Calvin) used allegorization to argue for a unified covenant of grace. For example, Galatians 4:24–31, where Paul allegorizes Hagar and Sarah as two covenants, they used as their basis for seeing the church as the “new Israel.”

Philo’s method of finding universal spiritual truths in specific Jewish texts influenced Christian theologians to universalize Old Testament promises, applying them to the church rather than a literal Israel. This supported covenant theology’s emphasis on continuity over the plain revelatory, historical, and grammatical distinctions.

Universal, Mystical Church

The concept of a universal, mystical church—a spiritual body transcending physical boundaries—also stems from allegorical and spiritualizing tendencies. Instead of viewing the church as a physical institution tied to specific locations, allegorical interpretation emphasized its spiritual unity and cosmic scope.

Philo’s Platonism, which prioritized the eternal and spiritual over the temporal and physical, resonated with early Christian thinkers who saw the church as a spiritual reality. For example, Origen’s allegorical exegesis viewed the church as the “body of Christ” in a mystical sense, encompassing all believers across time.

Augustine further developed this idea, again describing the church as the “City of God,” a spiritual community distinct from earthly kingdoms. This mystical view was reinforced by allegorizing Old Testament temple imagery (e.g., 1 Corinthians 3:16–17) to represent the church as a spiritual temple, not a physical one.

Other Novel Doctrines

Allegorization and spiritualization contributed to other theological innovations, such as supersessionism (Replacement Theology).  The view that the church replaces Israel as God’s covenant people relies heavily on allegorical readings of Old Testament promises, reinterpreting them as fulfilled in the church.  Instead of expecting a literal return of Christ to establish an earthly kingdom, allegorical interpretation fostered views of eschatology as a spiritual consummation, such as the eternal state or the soul’s union with God.

Allegorical readings of scripture supported the idea that physical rituals (e.g., baptism, Eucharist) convey spiritual realities, aligning with the mystical emphasis of Alexandrian theology.  Infant sprinkling, not in the Bible, found its way into scripture through allegorization, interpreted as New Testament circumcision.  Many false doctrines arose the same way through Christian history.

Historical Development

The trajectory from Philo to later Christian theology unfolded as follows.   In the 1st–2nd Century, early Christian apologists like Justin Martyr retained some literal interpretations (e.g., chiliasm, or premillennialism), but Alexandrian theologians like Clement and Origen leaned heavily on allegory, spiritualizing eschatological and covenantal texts.

In the 4th–5th Century, Augustine synthesized allegorical methods with Christian doctrine, shaping Western theology’s amillennial and covenantal framework.  During the Reformation, reformers like Calvin and Luther, while emphasizing scripture’s clarity, retained allegorical elements in their covenant theology, viewing the church as the fulfillment of Israel’s promises.  Amillennialism and covenant theology remain dominant in many Reformed and Catholic traditions.

Liberalism

Allegorism especially led to an ultimate theological demise in Roman Catholic and Protestant liberalism, where historical-critical methods mirrored allegory’s subjectivity.  A biblical model anchors interpretation in objective textual evidence, while allegory leans on human imagination, which distorts divine revelation.  Liberal theology, emergent church movements, and postmodern hermeneutics often treat scripture as a fluid text, open to subjective reinterpretation. For example, some contemporary scholars allegorize Genesis 1-3 to accommodate evolutionary theories, dismissing the historical Adam despite clear biblical genealogies (Luke 3:38).

By divorcing scripture from its historical and grammatical context, allegory undermines confidence in the Bible’s clarity and trustworthiness. It fosters a subjective faith where personal insight trumps divine revelation, leading to doctrinal confusion and spiritual instability. Churches influenced by allegorical methods often drift into liberalism, where core truths like Christ’s atonement or the resurrection are reinterpreted as mere symbols.

The fruits of the allegorical method erode the foundation of biblical Christianity, as warned in 2 Peter 2:1, where false teachers introduce destructive heresies. A biblical model, by contrast, preserves the integrity of God’s Word, ensuring sound doctrine and a vibrant, truth-based faith.  Allegorical methods appeal to those seeking flexibility in a pluralistic age and lead to a faith unmoored from scripture’s objective truth.

The original position of the church, which survived in churches separate from the state church, was a literal hermeneutic.  Scripture sees Jesus and the Apostles take literally the Old Testament prophetic passages.  Israel was literal Israel.  The church was a literal, visible assembly, like the meaning of the word.  Churches immersed believers upon their conversion into visible churches.  This grammatical and historical interpretation produces conservative theology, informing and forming theology out of the text of scripture.

Originalism

Literal interpretation is originalist.  It goes back to the original understanding of each author in his context.  This natural approach asks, how did the audience understand these authors who were hearing them in that day?  Literalism means an Old Testament priority.  People who read Moses didn’t need a later book or writing to understand Moses.  Emphasis is also put on the actual meaning of words in their context, not reading into the text based on theological or philosophical presuppositions.  This recognizes figures of speech, which sometimes is allegory or symbolic meaning, only when obviously so.

Not once in either of these essays did I use the term, dispensationalism.  Taking the Bible at face value, the plain reading, is not a new development.  It’s very old, even as allegorism is ancient, just not as old as premillennialism.  Jesus and the Apostles were premillennialists, which wasn’t a system until dispensationalism came along, really in response to the systematization of amillennialism with covenant theology.  Originalism is the only way someone will understand all of scripture and, therefore, obey what God said.