Reading Revelation

This article presents a cultural approach to Alexandrian allegorical interpretation. It analyses it in terms of contemporary assumptions about the revelatory nature of traditional texts and how this belief resulted in casting the reader or commentator in the role of a contemplative and in the use of traditional texts in spiritual and moral education. Commentaries by Origen, Evagrius, Didymus, Hermeias, and Olympiodorus are examined. The controversial question of the Catechetical and Neoplatonic Schools of Alexandria is also addressed. The purpose of the article is to demonstrate how allegorical exegesis was coherent and meaningful within Late Antique Alexandrian culture and how allegorical exegesis was used in practice

Antique · Art · Humanities · Visual arts · Classical Antiquity Studies · Linguistics and language evolution