Methodius of Olympus, Banquet of the Ten Virgins Discourse 3

It seems to me that she, too, Theophila, surpasses everyone in both deed and word and carries off the second prize for wisdom from no one; you cannot find fault with your argument, not even if it were entirely contentious and argumentative. But that one thing alone, among the other things rightly spoken, blessed one, seems to disturb and upset you, as you reckon that the most spiritual and wise man — I mean Paul — would not have referred the union of the first-formed man and the woman 'in Christ and the church' in vain, if the Scripture had not envisioned something higher than the literal words and the history. For if the Scripture is to be taken at all as a type of the union of a man and a woman, then for what purpose does the apostle, recalling these things and leading us, as I think, on the path of the Spirit, refer it 'in Christ and the church,' allegorizing the things concerning Eve and Adam? For the statement of Genesis says this: 'And Adam said, This now is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she will be called woman, because she was taken from her man. Because of this a man will leave his father and the mother and will cling to his wife, and the two will become one flesh' (Genesis 2:23-24). And the apostle, examining this very passage, no longer wants to take the union of wife and man according to the written text, as I said, but as you also do.