Origen was one of the first to employ widespread allegorical interpretation. He even proposed that texts many times had meanings on multiple levels.
Before one elevates the early Church fathers to a pedestal one only has to note that Paul and Peter were fighting heresy and poor interpretation techniques from the first century. The earliest Church leaders usually did not even have the full canon at their disposal since it doesn’t seem to have been compiled and adopted until around 250 AD at the earliest.
Interesting. I’d love to know the content of these texts.
On an off note, I’m fascinated by Dante’s work. I often wonder if it wasn’t secretly based upon some of the texts that were left out of what we know as our current Bible.
You wrote:
“He even proposed that texts many times had meanings on multiple levels.”
And he was right. There are four “levels”.