Patristic exegesis followed certain hermeneutical rules different from the modern principles of scientific interpretation of the Scripture. The main feature was christocentrism: Jesus Christ was the first hermeneutical key to understand the Bible. The second principle is the unity of the Scripture: the Old Testament is read and interpreted in the light of the New Testament. The third characteristic is the twofold way of reading the Word of God: literal and spiritual; both are complementary and need each other to achieve the full comprehension of the biblical message. The fourth is typology and symbolism: each literary motif of the Scripture (person, thing, event, etc.) can be a carrier of many meanings useful for spiritual purposes, exceeding the historical context. A special attention is attributed also to the tradition of the Church, the Eucharistic perspective and the fact that Church Fathers and ancient Rabbis interpreted and explained the Old Testament in the contexts of their communities of faith, independently but sometimes following similar intuitions.