The demand for supernatural authority found expression in many curious ways. It is notorious that at this time the writings and oral traditions of the past were greatly interpolated. The philosophers of the first century thought that they themselves could get a hearing only by inserting their own doctrines into the writings of Plato, Aristotle, and other heroes of the past. Thus the neo-Pythagoreans invented a halo of wisdom for Pythagoras in order to give their own sect its credentials. The demand for authority culminated in the attempt to trace the entire civilization of the time to some religious source. Philo on the one side, and the Gnostics on the other, found that Greek and Hebrew history have a common religious origin. Greek thought was found in the Oriental writings. The Greek sages were placed by the side of the Old Testament heroes. The canon of the Christians is full of cross-references――the Old Testament giving historical authority to the New Testament, the New Testament giving to the Old Testament the support of immediate revelation. There came into vogue what was called “allegorical interpretation,” according to which an historical document could be given two interpretations (or more)――a literal interpretation and a spiritual interpretation. The documents were supposed to have a body and a soul. The literal interpretation was of the body of the documents and suitable for the people; the spiritual interpretation was the more liberal interpretation of the soul of the document and suitable for philosophers.