Originally “Figura”，from the same stem as fingere，figulus，fictor，and effigies，meant “plastic form”.The history of its semantic development begins with the Hellenization of Roman education in the last century BC，upon which three great authors，Varro，Lucretius，and Cicero，exerted significant influences.Since 4th century “figura”，apart from construction of images，also acquired a topological function that extremely crucial to Christian religion and exegesis on the Holy Bible，related to which several usages and relevant methods of interpretation on classics were developed and even comprehensively advanced in Latin church in its entirety.So the historical scrutiny of a concept from “figura” to “allegorical figure” and “prophetic figure” would indicate how on the basis of its semantic development a word may grow into a historical situation and give rise to structures that will be effective for many centuries.The historical situation that drove St.Paul to preach among the Gentiles developed figural interpretation and prepared it for the influence it was to exert in late antiquity and the Middle Ages.
