Some more interesting content - from St. Gregory of Nyssa, a fourth century Saint, concerning how to interpret difficult passages:

By all these diff erent modes of speech and names for intellectual discernment, the apostle is pointing us to a single form of instruction: one ought
not in every instance to remain with the letter (since the obvious sense of the
words oft en does us harm when it comes to the virtuous life), but one ought
to shift to an understanding that concerns the immaterial and intelligible, so
that corporeal ideas may be transposed into intellect and thought when the
fl eshly sense of the | words has been shaken off like dust (cf. Matt 10:14)
Th is moreover is why he says, “Th e letter kills, but the spirit gives life”
(2 Cor 3:6), for frequently the narrative, if we stop short at the mere events,
does not furnish us with models of the good life. How does it profi t the cause
of a virtuous life to hear that the prophet Hosea got himself a child by sexual
malfeasance (Hos 1:2) and that Isaiah went in to the prophetess (Isa 8:3),if one stops short at the literal sense? Or what do the stories about David,
in which adultery and murder have agreed together in a single crime (cf.
2 Kgdms 11), contribute to the virtuous life? But if an account is found that
gives an incontestable indication of how these events fi t into the history of salvation, then the word of the apostle will be shown to be true: “Th e letter kills”
(for it contains examples of evildoing), “but the Spirit gives life” (for it transposes a meaning that is incongruous and discordant into a more divine sense).
We know too that when, in the likeness and form of a human being
(Phil 2:7), the Word who is worshiped by the whole creation transmitted
the divine mysteries through the medium of fl esh, it was in the following
manner | that he unveiled for us the thoughts contained in the law. He says
that he and his Father are the two witnesses whose testimony is true (John
8:18; cf. Deut 19:15), and the brazen serpent that was lift ed up high and was
the people’s remedy against deadly stings he refers to the dispensation that
took place for our sake on the cross (John 3:14). Also he exercises the wits of
his own holy disciples by the veiled and hidden things he speaks in parables,
in similitudes, in dark sayings, in aphorisms—things set forth in the form of
enigmatic statements.4
In private, he would give interpretations of these and
explain to them what was obscure, but on occasion, when they did not grasp
the meaning of his words, he would blame them for being slow to understand and slack in intelligence. For when he commanded them to beware of
the leaven of the Pharisees, and they in their small-minded way looked to
their food pouches, in which they had failed to bring a supply of bread, he
reprimanded them for failing to grasp that | the word “leaven” is a reference
to teaching (Matt 16:5–12). Again, when the disciples were setting a meal
before him, he responded, “I have food to eat of which you do not know”
(John 4:32), and since they supposed that he was speaking of corporeal food
that had been brought him from elsewhere, he explained his statement by
saying that the food that is proper and appropriate for him is to fulfi ll the
salutary [divine] will

PDF available at the link.