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TYPOLOGY

A method of biblical interpretation by which a person, event, or institution (“type”) in the OT corresponds to another one (“antitype”) in the NT within the framework of salvation history. It was frequently employed by the church fathers and favored by the Reformers. It was rejected by the “enlightened” theologians but reanimated in the wake of the Biblical Theology movement. After losing ground it again is experiencing a renaissance, especially among evangelical circles in North America.

The traditional understanding of biblical typology views the OT type as divinely ordained and a detailed predictive prefiguration of Jesus and the gospel realities brought about by him. “Postcritical neotypology” discovers typological relations in retrospective, often leaving room for an unlimited number of types. Others try to interpret typology in terms of 1st-century hermeneutical methods, leaving it without proper controls. The question has been raised whether typology is a hermeneutical method at all. The key issue appears to be whether a type is prophetic or not.

From the passages in the NT that employ Gk. týpos (“example”) hermeneutically (1 Cor. 10:1-13; Rom. 5:12-21; 1 Pet. 2:18-22; Heb. 8:5; 9:24), the following elements of biblical typology emerge: The historical element emphasizes that type and antitype are historical realities whose historicity is assumed and is essential to the typological argument. There is an intensification from type to antitype. The prophetic element considers the type as an advance presentation of the corresponding antitype. It is divinely designed and has a necessary quality giving it the force of a predictive foreshadowing (e.g., Rom. 5:14). The eschatological element links the type either with the first advent of Christ, or focuses on the dispensation of the Church, or links it with the second coming of Christ. The christological-soteriological element points out the essential focus and thrust of OT types. The ecclesiological element designates the possible aspects of the Church that may be involved: the individual worshipper, the corporate community, and the sacraments. These elements provide a proper hermeneutical control for defining biblical types.

Bibliography. D. L. Baker, Two Testaments, One Bible, rev. ed. (Downers Grove, 1991); R. M. Davidson, Typology in Scripture. Andrews University Seminary Doctoral Dissertation Series 2 (Berrien Springs, 1981); F. Foulkes, The Acts of God: A Study of the Basis of Typology in the Old Testament (London, 1958); L. Goppelt, Typos (Grand Rapids, 1982); G. W. H. Lampe and K. J. Woollcombe, Essays on Typology. SBT 22 (Naperville, 1957).

Friedbert Ninow

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

TYPOLOGY

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)