Christians, almost without exception, embraced the Old Testament as their own. Early Christians, both Jews and Gentiles, believed that Jesus was the fulfillment of the promises running through the Old Testament. Christians also inherited strategies for interpreting from Jesus. Jews in Alexandria had read much of the Bible as allegory. They sought a deeper spiritual or intellectual message beyond the literal meaning. Still others employed a method called typology. The reader discerns a pattern (type) or correspondence between two images or stories. Thus, the story of Jesus may be read with an
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