Daily Lesson for Sunday 30th of November 2025
Study the following Scriptures that refer to types and try to define what biblical typology is: Romans 5:14, 1 Corinthians 10:1-13, Hebrews 8:5, and Hebrews 9:23.
These biblical passages use the term “type” (Greek typos) or “antitype” (Greek antitypos) to refer to the way the New Testament writer defined the relationship between an Old Testament text or event and its meaning in his own time or in the future.
Image © Krieg Barrie from GoodSalt.com
Typology is a specific interpretation of persons, events, or institutions that prefigure Jesus or other realities contained in the gospel. The type corresponds to the antitype as a mold or a hollow form that reflects the original form, even if the latter, the antitype, more fully fulfills the purpose of the type. Thus, the biblical type was shaped according to a divine design that had existed concretely, or conceptually, in the mind of God, and it serves to shape future copies (antitypes).
It is crucial to understand that the writers of the New Testament did not randomly attribute a typological meaning to some Old Testament texts in order to make a point. An Old Testament type is always validated in the prophetic writings before it acquires an antitypical fulfillment in the New Testament.
a. David (Psalms 22:1,14-18):
b. The new David (Jeremiah 23:5; Isaiah 9:5-6; Isaiah 11:1-5):
c. The antitypical David (John 19:24):
Look at how David appears in the Old Testament and then how he is prefigured in the New. What lessons can we learn about how typology works from this example?
By looking at these texts, we discover that the Old Testament itself provides the key for identifying and applying types in the Scriptures. That is, New Testament writers, whose Scripture was the Old Testament, were inspired by the Holy Spirit to use the Old Testament types to reveal “present truth” (2 Peter 1:12), especially about Jesus and His ministry.
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