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

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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

narrative (story) literature of the OT, and looking within those stories for clues and connections to the person of Jesus Christ. Our objectives for this lesson especially detail the importance of selected character types which will be emphasized throughout for their illustrative value. In other words, we believe that the typological approach, when done responsibly and properly, coincide with methods of interpretation used by Jesus and the apostles, and can offer the careful exegete of the OT a remarkable tool for understanding the interrelationship between the two testaments, and the OT’s witness to Christ. This devotion focuses on Jesus’ understanding of the meaning of his own life and work as prefigured and understood in the character type of Jonah, specifically the correlation of his time in the great fish and Jesus’ own death and resurrection. What you must emphasize again for your students is the interconnection between the testaments and the OT witness to Christ through the character types mentioned in the Bible. Craig Evans summarizes concisely again, as a reminder to you, the nature of both typos and antitypos as they are used in the NT: The biblical concept of typology is based upon the word typos, which literally means “impression,” “mark” (John 20.25) or “image” (Acts 7.43), and metaphorically usually means “example” or “model” (Phil. 3.17; 1 Thess. 1.7; 2 Thess. 3.9; 1 Tim. 4.12; Titus 2.7; cf. hypotyposis in 1 Tim. 1.16; 2 Tim. 1.13) or even “warning” (1 Cor. 10.6, cf. typikos in 1 Cor. 10.11). In hermeneutical contexts this word means something like “pattern” or “figure” (Heb. 8.5). Although the hermeneutical usage of this word, and the related word antitypos (“copy” or “counterpart”; Heb. 9.24; 1 Pet. 3.21), is found only in the Pauline and General Epistles, important typologies are also present in the Gospels. ~ Craig A. Evans. “Typology.” The Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels . J. B. Green, ed. (electronic ed.). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1997. p. 862. Paul Karleen, in an article of the principle of analogy or correspondences, summarizes the existence of these connections in the OT, that are illumined and made real in the experience of Jesus in the NT:

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