The Old Testament Witness to Christ and His Kingdom, Mentor's Guide, MG09

/ 1 1 7

T H E O L D T E S T A M E N T W I T N E S S T O C H R I S T A N D H I S K I N G D O M

A. Importance of character types

1. They show how the stories and characters of Israel provide us with a rich and full presentation of the truth about Christ, 1 Cor. 10.1-6.

2. They cause us to look with greater interest and intensity at the OT narratives and characters.

3. They cause us to worship God and marvel at the richness of God’s plan and the unity of his biblical revelation, Matt. 12.39-41.

4. They enable us to transcend overly atomistic treatments of Bible study; they encourage us to look for the interconnections between the testaments even in its most basic images and stories.

3

B. Elements of character type study

What of Typology as a Valid, Important Method of Bible Interpretation?

page 328 3

[Typology] is a genuine approach widely practiced in the New Testament. For example, the furniture of the tabernacle and other matters associated with it and the temple (the altar and sacrifices, the veil, the golden cover of the ark of the covenant) are all types of Christ and of the heavenly realm (see Hebrews 9). When we come to typology, we must avoid being too broad or too narrow in our interpretation. We can be too broad if we find typology everywhere. We can be too narrow if we reject typology as an exegetical method on the basis of the claim that it is not consistent with a literal meaning which embraces one meaning, found by means of grammatical-historical study. . . . Yet we believe that typology is not to be divorced from exegesis, even though it cannot be fully “regulated hermeneutically, but takes place in the freedom of the Holy Spirit.” It very much involves a deeper meaning and was readily practiced by the Bible in its exegetical method (see 1 Corinthians 10; Romans 5).

~ James DeYoung and Sarah Hurty. Beyond the Obvious . Gresham, OR: Vision House Publishing, 1995. p. 74.