In Byzantine Biblical Hermeneutics, Father Maximos Constas wrotes:
To offer the faithful the Bible without allegorical interpretation, Gregory contended, would be like giving them food fit only for “irrational animals”, since it was “unprepared, uncooked, and unsuitable nourishment for rational beings”, a situation which applied to the words of the New Testament as well (Gregory of Nyssa, Homilies on the Song of Songs 5-11; Heine 1984).
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