What is a type, and what is an anti-type?

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What is a type? A type is a rough draft or a less accurate model from which a more perfect image is made. A type may also be defined as a symbol of something future and distant. Or it may be an example prepared and designed by God to prefigure a coming thing. What is prefigured is called the antitype.

The first characteristic of a type is that it casts a shadow, an imperfect representation of the thing it represents. The type may be a rough sketch of something entirely different in that it has something in common with the antitype. For example,

In the Jewish ceremonies, the animal sacrificed was called the victim, and by its death, it represented Jesus Christ, who, in the fullness of time, was to die for us all.

The land of Canaan was a type of heaven. The brazen serpent and the prophet Jonah represented a type of our Savior's crucifixion and resurrection.

Melchizedek, the priest of the most High God, represented Jesus Christ, our High Priest. Although Melchizedek was not an eternal priest, the writers have attributed to him a shadowy appearance of eternity by not mentioning the genealogy of his parents, his birth, or his death; this was planned and accomplished under God's direction in concealing all these particulars.

When we compare Moses's history and economy with the whole of the N.T., the ritual law was typical of the Messiah and the Gospel blessings. The apostles establish this point in their Epistle to the Hebrews.

The entire character, system, and offering of the Levitical priesthood typically prefigured Christ the Great High Priest, Hebrews 5-7-8, especially in the ceremonies observed on the Day of Atonement.

The Passover and the paschal lamb typified the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The feast of Pentecost commemorated the giving of the law on Mount Sinai, prefiguring the effusion of the Holy Spirit on the apostles, who were then able to proclaim the Gospel throughout the known world. Acts 2:1-11.

The feast of Tabernacles possibly typified the final restoration of the Jews. The blessings and privileges given to the Jews by God were types of these enjoyed by all Christians, prefiguring an honorable relationship in which believers are the true Israel.

Romans 9:4, “Who are Israelites; to whom pertain the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises:”

To say one is an 'Israelite' would indicate a Christian’s relationship (Jew or Gentile) to God as his people.” Their adoption as the sons of God and the privileges they are entitled to by adoption are types of believers being made partakers of the Divine nature by the renewing of the Holy Ghost and their shared inheritance with Jesus Christ.

The residing of the glory, first in the Tabernacle, then in the temple, was a figure of the residing of God by His Holy Spirit in Christians and the Christian church; the Lord's eternal residence in that church brought to perfection in Heaven.

The covenant with Abraham was the Gospel covenant, the blessings of which were represented by the temporary blessings promised to Abraham and his natural seed. The covenant at Sinai, where the Israelites, as the worshippers of the true God, were separated from the idolatrous nations, was an emblem of the final separation of the righteous from the wicked.

The giving of the law and the formation of the Jews into a nation prefigured the formation of the city of the living God and the general assembly of the church of the firstborn. The heavenly country, the habitation of the righteous, was typified by Canaan, a country given to the Israelites by God’s promise.

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