>>17815489
No, they didn't. Pic is a good academic history of this. There was a type of literalism assocaitted with gnostic religions in their approach to genesis which generally influenced the Christian interpretation to do the opposite. The Antiochian Catechetical school which was the closest to literal and was sometimes interpeted that way in Europe that way by reformers at least what they had of it anyways, tended to think of history as a type of sacal narrative reflecting a kinda metaphysical lack. Reality consisted of tropes of human failures. This contrasted with the Alexandrine interpretations which was more symbolic of metaphyscial realities rather than analogically tropes .