No.12. The Testimony of the Types.


Among the fruitful studies of Scripture, the study of the types, with their corresponding antitypes must be given a place in any series that looks at truth in the balance. The word tupos has passed into our language, and means something that is symbolized or figured. The Greek word is derived from tupto “I strike or beat” and tupos means, first “a blow”, as tupis means “a hammer”, then the mark or impression produced by the blow or the impression of a seal, the stamp of a coin, the trace of a footstep, and so a form, figure, image, pattern, model, example, emblem or type. So antitype, antitupos, meant originally in classical Greek something that repelled or hit back, tupos antitupos meant the “blow against blow” of the hammer and the anvil, and so the word came to mean a copy, an impression, or the thing prefigured by the type. The O.T. abounds with types. Not only are there such obvious types as the Passover Lamb, but there are typical men, like Adam or Joseph, and typical events like the Flood and the Six days Creation. We are told in I Cor. x. 6 and 11, that the wilderness wanderings of Israel, with their murmurings and experiences “happened unto them for ensamples” (I Cor. x. 11). Both “ensample” and “example” are used in this chapter to translate the Greek word tupos. Ensample is obsolete, example is from ex+emere to take out, exempt, and means “something taken out, a sample”. This, however, is only part of the intention of tupos, for tupos is not only an example, it is a figure which demands an antitype to make its purpose complete.

We are told, positively in the N.T. that the following were types. Adam, “who is the figure of Him that was to come” (Rom. v. 14). The teaching of I Cor. xv. concerning the first and the last Adam is fundamental. It involves the Headship of Christ, His resurrection and the deliverance of His people, His future domain when all things shall be put under His feet, all of which find their anticipatory type in the creation, position and expressed intention at the creation of Adam. Peter uses the Ark and its deliverance from the waters of the flood as a figure of salvation when writing to the dispersion, saying:

“The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us” (I Pet. iii. 21).

This passage literally rendered reads:

“Which (i.e. water; the relative, being neuter, can only refer to the word ‘water’) being antitypical (Gk. antitupos)” (“Companion Bible”).

The apostle, writing to the Hebrews concerning the tabernacle and its antitype heaven, says:

“For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures (antitypes) of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us” (Heb. ix. 24).

In Heb. ix. 9 another word is translated “figure”, namely, parabole, parable or continued simile:

“But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people: the Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the Holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: which was a figure (parabole) for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; which stood only in meats and drinks and divers washings (baptismos), and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation” (Heb. ix. 7-10).

This passage is followed immediately by the balancing revelation concerning Christ. It is so important and so illustrative of the method we are here pursuing that we continue our quotation, in order that this “parable” with its truth in the balance may be seen:

“But Christ being come an High Priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building (ktisis, creation); neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, Who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (Heb. ix. 11-14).

Here we have on the balance, the holiest of all that belonged to this creation, and the Holiest of All, which being heaven itself, belonged to the spiritual realm. The earthly high priest needed to offer to himself, whereas the heavenly High Priest was “holy, undefiled, and separate from sinners”, and needed not to offer for Himself as the earthly types did, neither did He need to offer “daily”.

“For this He did once, when He offered up Himself” (Heb. vii. 26, 27).

He needed not the blood of others (ix. 25), He offered “His own blood” (ix. 12). He was a high priest of good things to come of which the “law” was but a ‘shadow” (x. 1). The typical offerings never touched the conscience; the one offering of Christ did. So the parallel advances, and so the Lord instructs us in this most precious truth.

If we are to spend as much time in examining every type, this series will grow beyond reasonable dimensions, although it is possible, we may have to return to this fruitful theme when dealing with the types alone. Here we are rather considering many and varied examples of truth in the balance of which the types are but one important instance.

Let us consider some of the outstanding types in the Scripture, being guided in our selection by the writers of the N.T. Firstly, let us tabulate a few typical men.

Adam, we have already seen was a “figure” of Him that was to come (Rom. v. 14) and the references to Adam in I Cor. xv. must be added.

Cain provides John with a type of the children of the devil, and the world’s hatred (I John iii. 9-13).

Abel’s offering provides a type of the blood of Christ, which speaketh better things than the blood of Abel (Heb. xii. 24).

Noah, the Ark, the flood, the number of those saved, the character of the times, and the angelic sin and fall associated with the days of Noah are referred to as typical (Matt. xxiv. 37; I Pet. iii. 20; II Pet. ii. 5).

Melchisedec, who appears in the record of Scripture, having neither pedigree nor term set to the length of his priesthood; without any record of his birth or death; yet remarkably great by the fact that Abraham made an offering to him of a tithe of the spoils and received in return his blessing; all these items are gathered up in Heb. v.-vii. to show by the type, the infinitely greater Priesthood of Christ.

Joseph. The life of Joseph is marvelously full as a type of Christ. Beloved by his father, sent to his brethren who hated him, sold by Judah (Judas in the N.T.) for silver, lost to sight for years, imprisoned for a crime he did not commit, between two other prisoners, one of whom was restored and one hanged, like the two malefactors, finally the instrument of deliverance to his brethren, who repented and acknowledged their sin, and especially indicated by Stephen in his speech as a type of the Lord Who, like Joseph, “the second time” will be acknowledged by His brethren.

From typical men, we may turn to typical observances, with which the religion of Israel was replete.

The Passover. “Christ our Passover sacrificed for us” (I Cor. v. 7).

The Leaven. “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, even as ye are unleavened” (I Cor. v. 7).

The Firstfruits. “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept” (I Cor. xv. 20).

Pentecost. “When the day of Pentecost was fully come” (Acts ii. 1).
“This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel” (Acts ii. 16).

Tabernacles. “The last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto Me” (John vii. 7).

The “End” of the age. The Sunteleia (used in Matt. xiii. 39, 40, 49; xxiv. 3; xxviii. 20 and Heb. ix. 26), the word used was the title given to the third feast of the year, “the feast of the ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field” (Exod. xxiii. 14-16).

The experiences of Israel in the wilderness, we have already seen were “examples”, and we tabulate a few:

The Manna. “Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead . . . . . I am the living bread which came down from heaven” (John vi. 49-51).

The Rock. “They drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ” (I Cor. x. 4).

The Brazen Serpent. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up” (John iii. 14).

Here we must stop. We have gathered enough to illustrate the importance of observing the testimony of the types of Scriptures as part of the wider principle which is implied by the title of this series, namely, “Truth in the Balance”.

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(From The Berean Expositor, vol. 37, page 205).

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