A Sojourner's Quest

PA RT I I I : L I V I NG I N T H E WAY / 2 1 3

Extreme Misuse of Typology Is Very Possible

We marvel with peculiar awe at the ability and agility which some well-meaning brethren display in seeing what is not there; as also we marvel, with a sense of our denseness, at the super-spirituality which they evince in aerifying the most unsuspicious details of Scripture into rare spiritual significances. The “three white baskets” which Pharaoh’s ill-fated baker dreamed were on his head are to ourselves part of a true story; but to see in those same three basket recondite bearings upon the doctrine of the Trinity makes one part of our mind laugh and another part groan. We feel the same sort of reaction when we are assured that the bride’s hair in the Song of Solomon is the mass of the nations converted to Christianity. It is an eye-opener to learn that the “two pence” which the Good Samaritan gave to the innkeeper were covertly Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. We cannot but feel sorry for Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, when another ministerial victim of typomania tells us the “four barrels” of water which Elijah commanded to be poured over the altar on Mount Carmel were the four Gospel writers. As for the clergyman who would persuade us the boat in which our Lord crossed Galilee is the Church of England, while the “other little ships” which accompanied it were the other denominations, we cannot shake off a sly idea that the novel expositor himself, like the boats, must have been all “at sea.” We feel just the same about Pope Gregory the Great’s exposition of Job, in which Job’s verbose “friends” typify heretics; and his sevens sons the twelve Apostles; his seven thousand sheep God’s faithful people and his three thousand hump-backed camels the depraved Gentiles!”

~ J. Sidlow Baxter. The Strategic Grasp of the Bible .

The Three Errors of Typology to Avoid

There are three dangers, however, which must be avoided:

• Limiting the type, and therefore not using it. • Exaggerating the type, and therefore overusing it. • Imagining the type, and therefore misusing it.

~ J. Boyd Nicholson from the foreword to Harvest Festivals .