Typology And Allegory

The two types of exegetical methods that have been used throughout the history of the Church are typology and allegory. In Alexandria, the allegorical method clearly took prominence over typology, while the opposite can be said for Antioch. While the two are not necessarily completely opposed to one another, there are several differences between them. It is clear through the writings of the Church Fathers that both methods were used, although some Fathers were more inclined to lean one way or the other. While some may claim that there is no one strict method of interpreting scripture, it is important to note that one should aspire to do so under the guidance of the Church Fathers. This provides the most assurance of developing of a correct
Whether this was done through the parable of the prodigal son or the Good Samaritan, they were meant to teach the people some sort of lesson even though the events themselves were not necessarily historical. However, while Christ would give these parables to teach a lesson, he never did so with historical figures such as Moses or David. Whenever Christ spoke of such figures, he spoke about who these men were or what they taught according to what was written in scripture. However, Christ also alluded to the various prophecies in the Old Testament and how they spoke of Him. Therefore, this idea of understanding the scripture, especially the Old Testament, through the Christian lens paved the way for allegorical exegesis. A great example of this is any sacrifice that occurred in the Old Testament was interpreted by the Fathers as a foreshadowing of the true sacrifice, Christ. Also, St. Paul for example likens the crossing the Red Sea to baptism in 1st Corinthians. It is important to note that many of the Fathers who would categorize themselves as using typological exegesis would not disagree with the previously discussed examples among many others that they foreshadowed or symbolized Christ or
Around this time the allegorical method had been established and accepted in the Church. However, during this time the Church sought for a more concrete way of studying scripture. Arguably the most prominent figure to use this method is St. John Chrysostom. The Antiochiane School sought to remove the potential of wild interpretations of the scripture. They believed that allegory should be reined in so that the Church would avoid losing the historical and literal meaning of the text. Any “higher” meaning was explicitly laid out in scripture. Therefore there was still interpretation and further studying of scripture that needed to be completed, but the scripture shouldn’t be exploited to man’s bias. This doesn’t mean that this method eradicated all symbolism, but rather it refused to erase the historicity of the text. One clear example of this Theodore discerning that the sprinkling of the doors with book at the Exodus as a foreshadowing of Christ’s salvation through his crucifixion (Kelly 77). While some of the Fathers from this School were very strict in discerning what was symbolic and what wasn’t such as Diodore and Theodore, St. John Chrysostom was much more liberal in his stance on the