Christian writers such as Origen (184/185 – 253/254) took up the allegorized interpretations and began to read the Old Testament as a series of prefigurations of the New Testament, in a time when rhetorical training was common, when the classics of mythology were still standard teaching texts, when the Greek and Roman pantheon of gods were still visible forms (if not always fully recognized by the more learned populace), and when the new religions such as Christianity adopted or rejected pagan elements by way of "allegoresis" (the study and interpretation of allegory).