Explanatory palea (; in some works - the first edition of Palea) is a monument containing a retelling of the Old Testament with polemical, anti-Jewish interpretations, as well as with a large number of additions and comments, including extensive apocryphal material. The Explanatory Palea contains extensive theological reasoning, revealing the symbolic meaning of the Old Testament events as a prototype of the events of the New Testament; here one reads the polemical exhortations of Judaism. In places, the biblical story is interrupted by "natural science" reasoning. Biblical events are described from the creation of the world to the time of King Solomon.
