Much has already been written about the allegorical and typological interpretation of the Bible. It has long been commonplace to say that in fact they have little in common with the true meaning of the biblical text: allegorically, the interpreter sees in any detail an indication of an idea, and typologically - reduces any biblical plot to the story of Jesus Christ. For example, Augustine of Hippo understands the gospel parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:35) as follows: a traveler is a person who has left Paradise, the robbers who attacked him are demons who deprive him of eternal life, a priest and a Levite are Judaism that cannot save a person, a Samaritan is Christ, and the inn where he delivered the wounded person - Church (Quaest. Ev. 2.19). Starting with Augustine, this interpretation has become normative in the West (to the point that in the Middle Ages it is depicted on the stained glass windows of cathedrals, for example, in Bourges in France). However, Augustine, in turn, borrowed it from his predecessors - Origen was the first to offer an allegorical interpretation (Volume 34.3). Even the smallest details get their own meaning from the allegorists, and different interpreters have different meanings: for example, for Origen, the innkeeper turns out to be an angel, and for Augustine-the apostle Paul; two coins that the Samaritan gives him, for Origen, mean the knowledge of the Father and the Son, and for Augustine - the promise of good in this and the future life. Indeed, we can say that such an interpretation deliberately pulls the passage out of context and moves away from the meaning that the author puts into the text. Every reader can see from the context that the parable actually answers the question " Who is my neighbor? "and contains a clear moral imperative. The author of the classic work on the Gospel parables, C. G. Dodd [Dodd, 2004, pp. 4-5], begins with such a categorical criticism of the interpretation of Augustine of Hippo. Works on this t ... Read more