A Biblical Vision, Part I: Mastering the Old Testament Witness to Christ

Session 3: The History of Israel as Type and Analogy in the Old Testament’s Witness to Christ 41

(3) The wilderness wanderings and the Church of God, cf. Ps. 95.7-8; Heb. 4.3-11 with 1 Pet. 1.17; 2.11

4. Types usually involve also a moral injunction or command , a principle to understand and to follow: the nature of following the pattern set.

a. By Jesus Christ, John 13.15; 1 Pet. 2.21

b. By the apostles, Phil. 3.17, 2 Thess. 3.9; 1 Cor. 11.1

c. By leaders appointed by God to lead the Church, 1 Tim. 4.12; Titus 2.7; 1 Pet. 5.3

d. By the community of believers, 1 Thess. 1.7

5. Types differ from symbols and from allegory .

a. Symbols are concrete objects meant to stand for an abstract concept (e.g., burning = judgment).

b. Allegory is a story or depiction where each character or metaphor or object stands for a particular element in a picture designed to provide an overall meaning (Gal. 4 and the allegory of the two mountains).

c. Types refer to the fulfillment of some critical revelation in terms of analogy: a type is a literal, historical, and actual event or person that corresponds to another literal, historical, and actual event or person.