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100- 165 Justin Martyr, born a pagan at Naples, is the first to use Scripture methodically in his writings.

Late 2nd century Theophilus of Antioch is the first to quote primarily from the New Testament as "divine Word."

Ca. 135 The Gnostic Epistle of Barnabas offers a completely spiritualized, figurative interpretation of Old Testament passages. Such Gnostic writings—some of which were discovered at Nag Hammadi in 1945— pushed the church to refine its own understanding of the Old Testament.

144 Marcion of Sinope is excommunicated from his church and founds his own. He rejected the Old Testament, creating his own collection of New Testament books with Old Testament references cut out. This pushed the church to re-emphasize the Old Testament and to establish its own canon of New Testament writings.

185 In his detailed attack on the Gnostics, Against Heresies, Irenaeus of Lyons appeals to the apostolic writings to show that the God of Moses is the same as the God and Father of Jesus Christ— thus the Old Testament must be taken as sacred Scripture.

Ca. 20 B.C. - A.D. 50 Lifetime of Philo of Alexandria, the Jewish thinker and exegete who pioneered the allegorical method of interpretation to link the Hebrew Scriptures to Greek philosophy. His goal: an effective apologetic for Judaism in the Hellenistic world, with a success not lost on Clement and Origen of Alexandria. Those two Christian teachers picked up the method for the church and passed it on to Ambrose and others.

Late 2nd century Clement of Alexandria (ca. 60-215) responds to Gnostic teachings with a thorough, detailed exegesis of all of Scripture, combining allegorical methods and acute theological insights.

225 Origen publishes On First Principles, the first systematic treatise that provides a theoretical framework for biblical interpretation. This book promotes the allegorical method exemplified by Philo of Alexandria and Origen's own teacher Clement.

Early 3rd century Origen identifies three levels of spiritual meaning in Scripture: moral, mystical (dealing with the mystery of Christ and the church), and anagogical (leading to heavenly, transcendent reality).

245 After I 5 years of work, Origen completes his Hexapla, a six-column parallel edition of the Old Testament. It compares several Greek versions of the Hebrew Bible with the Hebrew original and its Greek transcription.

4 12-444 While bishop of Alexandria during these years, Cyril of Alexandria fills thousands of pages with verse-by-verse exegesis of Isaiah, the Psalms, the Gospels of John and Matthew, and other books. His eloquent, erudite interpretations of the Scriptures' spiritual sense enriched both the Western and the Eastern church for many centuries after his death.

Ca. 193 The lawyer Tertullian, raised as a pagan in Carthage, converts and begins to write passionate anti-pagan literature. He expressed his high view of the Bible as divinely inspired in a realistic rather than allegorical interpretive style. His principle was to let Scripture explain itself, by proceeding from clearer to more obscure passages.

Ca. 252 Cyprian of Carthage (ca. 200-258) writes On the Lord's Prayer, the West's first exegetical essay. It applies each verse of the Gospels to some aspect of the Christian's experience.

Early 360s Hilary of Poitiers, bishop from 350 to 367, writes the vast Commentary on the Psalms, written in classical style and applying to the biblical text the thought and style of Latin classical works.

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