Wikipedia's first sentence called it “approach which assigns a higher-than-”. Today it says “interpretive method”. Sections present on October 6, 2023 no longer exist: “Four types”.
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We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2010 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2010
Allegorical interpretation Historical-grammatical method Inspiration Literalism Alcohol Conspiracy theory Ethics Capital punishment Homosexuality Humor Incest Muhammad Prophecy Rape Serpents Sex Slavery Violence Warfare Women Perspectives Gnostic Islamic Quranic Inerrancy Infallibility Criticism of the Bible Biblical authority Outline of Bible-related topics Bible portal v t e In a biblical context, Allegorical interpretation is an approach assuming that the authors of a text (e.g., the Bible ) intended something other than what is literally expressed.1The method has its origins in both Greek thought (who tried to avoid the literal interpretations of ancient Greek myths ) and in the rabbinical schools of the Land of Israel . Most notably of pre-Christian authors Philo of Alexandria expressly refers to its use by his predecessors and uses it himself to discover indications of different doctrines of philosophy in the stories of the Pentateuch. The traces of allegorical and typological interpretation can be found later in the New Testament but are further developed in the Epistle of Barnabas and especially by Origen . In the Middle Ages Typology was the dominant Christian allegorical interpretation, which developed sets of correspondences between the Old and New Testaments, believing that the events described in the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament had occurred in order to pre-figure events in the life of Christ in the New. But there were other classes of allegory in the Middle Ages .2
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The opening as it stood in 2005
Allegorical interpretation in Biblical studies is the approach which assigns a higher-than-literal interpretation to contents of the Bible . v t e
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The opening as it stood in 2015 5 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Interpretation Hermeneutics Pesher Midrash Pardes Allegorical interpretation Historical-grammatical method Inspiration Literalism Alcohol Conspiracy theory Ethics Capital punishment Homosexuality Humor Incest Muhammad Prophecy Rape Serpents Sex Slavery Violence Warfare Women Perspectives Gnostic Islamic Quranic Inerrancy Infallibility Criticism of the Bible Biblical authority Outline of Bible-related topics Bible portal v t e Allegorical interpretation is an interpretive method ( exegesis ) which assumes that the Bible has various levels of meaning and tends to focus on the spiritual sense (which includes the allegorical sense , the moral (or tropological) sense, and the anagogical sense ) as opposed to the literal sense.It is sometimes referred to as the Quadriga , a reference to the Roman chariot drawn by four horses.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 661961948.
The opening as it stood in 2020
Interpretation Hermeneutics Pesher Midrash Pardes Allegorical interpretation Historical-grammatical method Inspiration Literalism Alcohol Conspiracy theory Ethics Capital punishment Homosexuality Humor Incest Muhammad Prophecy Rape Serpents Sex Slavery Violence Warfare Women Perspectives Gnostic Islamic Quranic Inerrancy Infallibility Criticism of the Bible Biblical authority Outline of Bible-related topics Bible portal v t e Allegorical interpretation of the Bible is an interpretive method ( exegesis ) that assumes that the Bible has various levels of meaning and tends to focus on the spiritual sense, which includes the allegorical sense , the moral (or tropological) sense, and the anagogical sense , as opposed to the literal sense. It is sometimes referred to as the quadriga , a reference to the Roman chariot that was drawn by four horses.Allegorical interpretation has its origins in both Greek thought and the rabbinical schools of Judaism.In the Middle Ages, it was used by Bible commentators of Christianity.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 965252883.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023 2 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Interpretive method Interpretation Hermeneutics Pesher Midrash Pardes Allegorical interpretation Historical-grammatical method Inspiration Literalism Alcohol Conspiracy theory Ethics Capital punishment Homosexuality Humor Incest Muhammad Prophecy Rape Serpents Sex Slavery Violence Warfare Women Perspectives Gnostic Islamic Quranic Inerrancy Infallibility Criticism of the Bible Biblical authority Outline of Bible-related topics Bible portal v t e Allegorical interpretation of the Bible is an interpretive method ( exegesis ) that assumes that the Bible has various levels of meaning and tends to focus on the spiritual sense, which includes the allegorical sense , the moral (or tropological) sense, and the anagogical sense , as opposed to the literal sense. It is sometimes referred to as the quadriga , a reference to the Roman chariot that was drawn by four horses. Some argue that Hosea's Jacob’s wrestling with an angel in Hosea 12:4 references an allegorical interpretation.In the Middle Ages, allegorical interpretation was used by several Bible commentators of Christianity.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1168199867.
The opening as it stood in 2025 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Interpretation Hermeneutics Pesher Midrash Pardes Allegorical interpretation Historical-grammatical method Inspiration Literalism Alcohol Conspiracy theory Ethics Capital punishment Homosexuality Humor Incest Muhammad Prophecy Rape Serpents Sex Slavery Violence Warfare Women Perspectives Gnostic Islamic Quranic Inerrancy Infallibility Criticism of the Bible Biblical authority Outline of Bible-related topics Bible portal v t e Allegorical interpretation of the Bible is an interpretive method ( exegesis ) that assumes that the Bible has various levels of meaning and tends to focus on the spiritual sense, which includes the allegorical sense , the moral (or tropological) sense, and the anagogical sense , as opposed to the literal sense. It is sometimes referred to as the quadriga , a reference to the Roman chariot that was drawn by four horses. In the Middle Ages, allegorical interpretation was used by Bible commentators of Christianity.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1258825659. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “approach which assigns a higher-than-”. Today it says “interpretive method”. Sections present on October 6, 2023 no longer exist: “Four types”. Read the current article and compare.
2005
2010
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
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Then
approach which assigns a higher-than-
Now
interpretive method
Sections that no longer exist
Present on October 6, 2023, absent today, with no near-matching heading in the current article and the article shorter overall, so this is not a renamed heading or a topic absorbed into a fuller treatment. 1 section of 400 characters or more gone since October 6 2023, with the article 2,697 characters shorter.
Four types
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