Type

A type (Greek tupos, "stamp," "impression," or "pattern") in biblical theology is an Old Testament person, event, institution, or object that God designed to prefigure a corresponding New Testament reality — its "antitype" (antitupos). The Greek word tupos appears in Scripture with meanings ranging from a physical mark (John 20:25, the print of the nails) to a moral pattern (Romans 6:17; Philippians 3:17) to an explicit typological designation (Romans 5:14; 1 Corinthians 10:6, 11). Paul calls Adam "a type of the one who was to come" (Romans 5:14), and in 1 Corinthians 10:6, 11 the wilderness experiences of Israel are said to have occurred "as types for us" and were written down as warnings for the end of the ages. Hebrews develops the typological method most extensively, presenting the Levitical priesthood, tabernacle, and sacrificial system as shadows (skia) of the heavenly realities fulfilled in Christ. Typology is distinct from allegory in that it treats the historical reality of both type and antitype seriously, finding divine intention in the patterns of history.