c. 200–253

Alexandrian Exegesis: Clement and Origen – Inspiration, the Three Senses of Scripture and the Hexapla

Clement of Alexandria, following Philo and the Epistle of Barnabas, regarded allegory as the main tool of hermeneutics: every text has a literal ("first") and a spiritual sense, but the primary sense must not be discarded unless it is unworthy of God. Origen believed in the inspiration of every word of Scripture and precisely for that reason demanded "spiritual" interpretation: the sense of Scripture is threefold, like a human being – literal ("flesh"), moral ("soul") and spiritual. As the foundation of theology he accepted the teaching handed down from the apostles, leaving the wise Christian room for inquiry as long as it did not contradict these foundations. In the Hexapla, Origen for the first time in Christian history provided a tool for establishing the original text of the Old Testament.