abstract
| - An allegorical interpretation of Genesis is a symbolic, rather than literal, reading of the biblical book of Genesis. An allegorical interpretation does not necessarily preclude a literal interpretation; interpreters such as Origen of Alexandria and Augustine of Hippo maintained that the Bible is true on multiple levels at the same time. Genesis is part of the canonical scriptures for both Christianity and Judaism, and to a lesser degree Islam, and thus to believers is taken as being of spiritual significance. The opening of the book tells the biblical story of creation. For those that take Genesis as a literal account, this indicates what occurred on six successive days of 24 hours each. Alternatively, there are those that favor an allegorical interpretation of the story. Many of this persuasion claim it to be a description of humankind's development of a relationship between creation and the creator. Both Jews and Christians have been considering the idea of the creation history as an allegory (instead of an historical description) long before the development of modern science. Two notable examples are Saint Augustine (4th century) that, on theological grounds, argued that everything in the universe was created by God in the same instant, and not in seven days as a plain account of Genesis would require [1]; and the 1st century Jewish scholar Philo of Alexandria, who wrote that it would be a mistake to think that creation happened in six days, or in any set amount of time. [2]
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