ACC ~ Galatians 4 v24a

ALLEGORY DEFINED. CHRYSOSTOM: Allegory is used improperly for typology. His meaning is this: “This story does not say only what is evident but relates other things as well; hence it is called allegory.” OMILY ON GALATIANS 4.24.

THE LITERARY TRADITION OF ALLEGORY. JEROME: Allegory is properly a term in the art of grammar. How it differs from metaphor and other figures of speech we learn as children. It presents one thing in words and signifies another in sense…. Understanding this, Paul (who had a certain knowledge of secular literature also) used the name of the figure of speech and called it allegory according to the usage of his own circle. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.24.

PAUL DOES NOT THEREBY DENY THE PLAIN OR LITERAL SENSE OF SCRIPTURE. THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: Those who are at great pains to pervert the meaning of the divine Scriptures … abuse this saying of the apostle’s, as though they thought that they could derive from it the power to suppress the entire sense of holy Scripture in their aspirations to speak “allegorically,” as if in the manner of the apostle. They fail to see how great a difference there is between their own position and that of the apostle in this passage. For the apostle does not deny the history or pick apart the events of the distant past, but he has stated them as they happened at the time, while using for his own purpose the interpretation of these events. … He would not have said “referred to one who was born” if he had not believed that person had really existed. There cannot be a simile if one takes away the historical reality itself. COMMENTARY.

Gal