Typological reading


 * For other types of typology see typology.

'They bear witness about me'
Typology is a theological doctrine or theory of types and their antitypes found in scripture. There are many and varied comparisons made by the Biblical writers between different events in the history of God's plan of salvation. This is true within the Old Testament itself (where, for example, the restoration of the exiles from Babylon is portrayed as both a new creation and a new exodus) and especially between the Old Testament and the New Testament. In John 5:39, Jesus speaks of the Old Testament Scriptures, claiming that 'they bear witness about me'. Throughout the New Testament, this sentiment is expounded repeatedly, with Christ's saving work on the cross frequently portrayed as the climactic fulfillment of the Old Testament.

Examples of typology in the New Testament

 * Paul, writing the Epistle to the Romans, says that Adam is as a type of Jesus (Romans 5:12), since Adam's sin caused everyone to be condemned to death, but Jesus' righteousness caused everyone to have life. Here, Jesus would then be Adam's antitype.
 * In the Epistle to the Hebrews, the author states that the Old Testament law has but a shadow of the good things to come, but that the true form of these realities is to be found in Jesus Christ (Hebrews 10:1)
 * While in the wilderness, Moses put a brazen serpent on a pole which would heal anyone bitten by a snake who looked at it (Numbers 21:8). Jesus proclaimed that the serpent, as a symbol of saving faith, was a type of himself, since "as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up" (John 3:14).
 * On the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus is seen talking with Moses and Elijah about 'the Exodus' he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem (Luke 9:31, lit.)

Medieval Typology
In the middle ages, a less constrained form of typology became prominent, in some cases going beyond the comparisons made by the Biblical writers. Medieval allegory began as an early Christian method for synthesizing the discrepancies between the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and the Christian Bible (New Testament). While both testaments were studied and seen as equally divinely inspired by God, the Old Testament contained discontinuities for Christians -- for example the Jewish kosher laws. The Old Testament was therefore seen in places not as a literal account, but as an allegory, or prediction, of the events of the New Testament, in particular how the events of the Old Testament related to the events of Christs life. The events of the Old Testament were seen as part of the story, a prefiguration, with the events of Christs life. The technical name for seeing the New Testament in the Old Testament is called typology.

One example of typology is the story of Jonah and the whale from the Old Testament. Medieval allegorical interpretation of this story is that it prefigures Christ's burial, the stomach of the whale as Christ's tomb: Jonah was freed from the whale after three days, so did Christ rise from his tomb after three days. Thus, whenever one finds an allusion to Jonah in Medieval art or Medieval literature, it is usually an allegory for the burial and resurrection of Christ. Another common typological allegory is with the four major Old testament prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. These four prophets prefigure the four Apostles Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. There was no end to the number of analogies that commentators could find between stories of the Old Testament and the New.