everywhere. In the West especially, knowledge of the Old Testament was scant. Origen’s influence is widely seen, from East to West, both in form and in the actual content of interpretation. But in this context, apart from criticism of excessive allegorisms condemned even by Alexandrian exegetes (Didymus), there was now a reserve, not to say downright hostility, in the name of an appreciation of the sacred text which was orientated less towards allegory, and more towards the literal meaning of the