"In Egypt the philosophers have a sublime and secret
knowledge respecting the nature of God, which they only disclose to the people under the cover of fables or allegories. • • • • All the Eastern nations — the Persians, the Indians, the Syrians — conceal secret mysteries under religious fables ; the wise of all nations fathom the meaning of them, while the common people onlysee the symbols and the outside of them.** "

- Origen (Origen Adamantius) (ca. 185-254 AD), early Christian scholar, theologian, and one of the most distinguished of the early fathers