Revisiting the Allegory/Typology Distinction: The Case of Origen

There is a significant debate in Origenian scholarship today about the allegory/typology distinction. Some scholars accept the demarcation between these two forms of nonliteral scriptural interpretation, whereas others reject it. In this paper I seek to determine whether, or to what extent, the allegory/typology distinction is valid for study of this prominent early Christian exegete. My article unfolds in three steps. First, I canvass the last sixty years of scholarship that insists upon this distinction and determine where consensus has been reached, as well as where disagreement still exists; next, I turn to Origen’s own writings and assess how he used and defined the Greek terms that stand behind “allegory” and “typology”; in the third section I explore if there was in Origen’s writings a distinction that resembled what most scholars today intend to invoke when they speak of allegory and typology. In my conclusion I contend that the literature’s allegory/typology distinction is of mixed value. I propose ways to salvage what is important in this distinction and dispense with what is problematic.