[AmericaUnited]

It's very clear that it was not an allegory. In the example you mention "When Christ spoke in parables", it was always very clear that it was a parable, as you can read again and again:

Mt 13:3 And he spake many things unto them in PARABLEs, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;
Mt 13:18 Hear ye therefore the PARABLE of the sower.
Mt 13:24 Another PARABLE put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:
Mt 13:31 Another PARABLE put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field:
Mt 13:33 Another PARABLE spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.
Mt 21:33 Hear another PARABLE: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard,...
Mt 24:32 Now learn a PARABLE of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:

[dark_lord]

Yeah, in the bible it does tend to indicate when the Christ was stating a parable. But the Letter from Clement is NOT part of the bible. Whether he was speaking allegorically or not is not clear. He may have believed his side reference to the phoenix was accurate, or he might have been speaking allegorically where his audience thought he was speaking literally, or the literary standards of those days don't stand up to current literary critical perspective. But my point was that it doesn't really matter.