Biblical Typology E-Book

Vern S. Poythress

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

How to Study the Old Testament for Signs of Christ  Believers read Scripture to follow Christ and deepen their relationship with him. But since a majority of the Bible was written before Jesus's life and death on the cross, many people rely on the Old Testament for historical context and moral guidance alone. However, when studied in detail, we see how even the Old Testament reveals Christ as the center of God's plan for redemption.  Biblical Typology examines how the Old Testament foreshadows Christ, the church, and the consummation through types—or symbols—pointing toward fulfillment. Well-known for his academic yet accessible writing, Vern S. Poythress not only provides examples of types and analogies found in God's word but also teaches readers a practical framework and diagram for effectively examining them throughout Scripture. Readers will learn how to identify and interpret biblical typology for themselves as they deepen their understanding of the Bible and the wisdom of God.  - Great for Bible Teachers: Teaches pastors, Bible study leaders, and thoughtful lay people how to effectively study biblical typology in the Old Testament - Practical How-To: Not only examines Scripture for examples of Christ in the Old Testament but teaches how readers can find types for themselves  - Uses Helpful Tools: Introduces a practical framework and diagram to effectively interpret typology within the Old Testament - Academic yet Accessible: Written by scholar, professor, and author Vern S. Poythress 

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“I am delighted to see Vern Poythress’s book on biblical typology. His knowledge of the Scriptures and the interpretive principles necessary to handle them responsibly is unsurpassed. He presents the complex topic of biblical types clearly and simply so that laypeople and scholars alike will benefit. This is a book that you will not want to miss.”

Richard L. Pratt Jr., President, Third Millennium Ministries

“As readers learn how the New Testament relates to the Old, they will encounter the subject and language of typology. I’m grateful for Vern Poythress providing this accessible resource so that interpreters can think about how the patterns and shadows of the Old Testament point to Christ, the church, and the new creation. The divine author of Holy Scripture is summing up all things in his Son. Let Poythress help you identify key symbols and types along the storyline of redemption.”

Mitchell L. Chase, Associate Professor of Biblical Studies, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; author, Short of Glory: A Biblical and Theological Exploration of the Fall

Crossway Books by Vern S. Poythress

Biblical Typology

Chance and the Sovereignty of God

In the Beginning Was the Word

Inerrancy and the Gospels

Inerrancy and Worldview

Interpreting Eden

Logic

The Lordship of Christ

The Miracles of Jesus

Reading the Word of God in the Presence of God

Redeeming Mathematics

Redeeming Our Thinking about History

Redeeming Philosophy

Redeeming Reason

Redeeming Science

Redeeming Sociology

Theophany

Truth, Theology, and Perspective

Biblical Typology

Biblical Typology

How the Old Testament Points to Christ, His Church, and the Consummation

Vern S. Poythress

Biblical Typology: How the Old Testament Points to Christ, His Church, and the Consummation

© 2024 by Vern S. Poythress

Published by Crossway 1300 Crescent Street Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

Cover design: Faceout Studio, Jeff Miller

First printing 2024

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated into any other language.

There are brief quotations from the New International (NIV) and King James (KJV) versions of the Bible.

All emphases in quotations from Scripture have been added by the author.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-9242-3 ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-9244-7 PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-9243-0

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Poythress, Vern S., author.

Title: Biblical typology : how the Old Testament points to Christ, his church, and the consummation / Vern S. Poythress.

Description: Wheaton, Illinois : Crossway, 2024. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2023020517 (print) | LCCN 2023020518 (ebook) | ISBN 9781433592423 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781433592430 (pdf) | ISBN 9781433592447 (epub)  

Subjects: LCSH: Typology (Theology) | Theophanies. | Bible. Old Testament—Criticism, interpretation, etc. 

Classification: LCC BT225 .P69 2024  (print) | LCC BT225  (ebook) | DDC 220.6/4—dc23/eng/20231120 

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023020517

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023020518

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

2024-01-29 02:41:52 PM

Contents

Tables and Illustrations

Introduction: What Is Typology?

Part I: Introducing the Challenge of the Old Testament

1  Understanding the Old Testament

2  Interpreting Noah’s Flood

3  The Bronze Serpent (Numbers 21:4–9)

Part II: A Framework for Typological Interpretation

4  Basic Theology for Typology

5  The Shape of Our Response to the Bible

Part III: Introducing the Practice of Typological Interpretation

6  Introducing Clowney’s Triangle

7  The Tabernacle and Its Furniture (Exodus 25)

8  Clowney’s Triangle for Episodes in Genesis

9  Underlying Principles for Clowney’s Triangle

Part IV: Deepening Our Understanding of Typological Meaning

10  Symbolism and Theophany

11  The Nature of Meaning

12  Three Complementary Perspectives on Meaning

13  The Theme of Mediation

14  Comparing Types with Other Relations between Meanings

15  Analogies, Symbols, Types, and Prophecies as Perspectives

16  Allegorization

Part V: Enrichment of Clowney’s Triangle

17  Enhancements to Clowney’s Triangle

18  Multifaceted Meaning

19  Boundaries for Typological Interpretation

20  Maxims for Typological Interpretation

Part VI: The Practice of Typological Interpretation

21  Types in the Mosaic Administration

22  Types in Redemptive Plots

23  Types in Creation

24  Types in the Earthly Life of Jesus

Part VII: Interpretation of Analogies

25  Analogies as Similar to Types

26  Using the Triangle for Analogy

27  Analogies for the Attributes of God

28  Analogies for the Trinity

29  The Extent of Analogies

Conclusion

Appendices

Appendix A: Patrick Fairbairn’s Principles for Typology

Appendix B: The Terminology for a “Type”

Appendix C: Distinctiveness in the Study of Typology

Appendix D: Clowney’s Triangle of Typology

Appendix E: Christocentric Preaching

Bibliography

General Index

Scripture Index

Tables and Illustrations

Tables

14.1  Distinctive Features of Four Categories of Old Testament Passages

14.2  Various Kinds of Relations—Clarified

27.1  The Ten Commandments Reflecting Attributes of God

Illustrations

6.1  Clowney’s Triangle (Altered)

6.2  The Symbolic Meaning of the Passover (Step 1)

6.3  The Fulfillment of the Passover Lamb (Step 2)

6.4  Adding Application (Step 3)

6.5  Application for the Passover Lamb

6.6  Step 1: The Meaning of a Symbol

6.7  Step 2: From Truth to Fulfillment

6.8  Step 3: From Fulfillment to Application

7.1  The Symbolic Meaning of the Tabernacle (Step 1)

7.2  The Fulfillment of the Tabernacle (Step 2)

7.3  Application for the Tabernacle (Step 3)

7.4  The Ark, Step 1 (Symbolic Meaning)

7.5  The Ark, Step 2 (Fulfillment)

7.6  The Ark, Step 3 (Application)

7.7  The Ark, All Three Steps

7.8  The Ark, All Three Steps with Atonement

7.9  The Table, All Three Steps

7.10  The Lampstand, All Three Steps

7.11  The Tree of Life, All Three Steps

8.1  Noah’s Flood, Three Steps

8.2  Clowney’s Triangle for Melchizedek

8.3  Clowney’s Triangle for Sarah and Hagar

8.4  Clowney’s Triangle for Jacob’s Ladder

17.1  Step 4: Surplus in Fulfillment

17.2  Step 4 for the Tabernacle

17.3  Step 5: Meaning in Details in a Type

17.4  Step 5 for the Tabernacle

17.5  Step 6: Roots in Creation and Expression in the Consummation

17.6  Step 6 for the Tabernacle

17.7  Step 7: Distinctions Based on Stages

17.8  Step 7 for the Tabernacle

17.9  Step 8  Application of Christ’s Work through a Type

17.10  Step 8 for the Tabernacle

18.1  Multifaceted Relations for the Tabernacle

18.2  Multifaceted Relations for David’s Fight with Goliath

24.1  Clowney’s Triangle Applied to the Feeding of the 5,000

25.1  Clowney’s Triangle

25.2  The First Leg of the Triangle for Analogy

25.3  The First Leg of the Triangle for Analogy, for Noah

25.4  The Second Leg of the Triangle for Analogy

25.5  The Second Leg of the Triangle for Analogy, for Noah

25.6  The Relation of Analogy

25.7  Application in the Triangle for Analogy

25.8  Application in the Triangle for Analogy, for Noah’s Faith

25.9  Reshaping the Triangle for Analogy

26.1  The Triangle for Analogy for Genesis 50:20

26.2  The Triangle for Analogy for Joseph’s Refusal (Gen. 39:6–13)

26.3  The Triangle for Analogy for Jacob’s Vow (Gen. 28:18–22)

26.4  The Triangle for Analogy for the Sons of Ham (Gen. 10:6)

27.1  The Triangle for Analogy, for the Power of God in Creation

27.2  The Triangle for Analogy, for Lex Christi, “Holy”

28.1  The Triangle for Analogy, for the Triad for Lordship

D.1  Clowney’s Triangle of Typology

D.2  The Tabernacle as a Type of Christ

D.3  Clowney’s Triangle with Relabeling for Clarification

D.4  Clowney’s Triangle with Application

E.1  Clowney’s Triangle, Summarizing Steps for Typological Reasoning

Part I

Introducing the Challenge of the Old Testament

It is a major challenge to see the relevance of the Old Testament to our lives in Christ. Types are one important way in which we may read the Old Testament as a testimony to Christ, not merely as historical records or instances of moral examples.

Introduction: What Is Typology?

What is typology? Typology is the study of types. This study belongs to the larger subject of principles for interpreting the Bible. And what is a type? Roughly speaking, a type is a symbol specially designed by God to point forward to a fulfillment.1 The word type is used here as a technical term. It is not to be confused with the more common meaning of the English word type, such as when we say, “A nail is one type of fastener,” that is, one kind of fastener, one category of fastener.

Priests as Types

What is one example of a type? The priests in the Old Testament are types pointing forward to Christ. God specially appointed Aaron, the brother of Moses, and Aaron’s sons, as priests (Num. 8–9). The priests were symbolic personages. They symbolized the need that people have for a mediator to represent them and reconcile them to God through the forgiveness of their sins. Christ is the final great priest, who actually accomplished forgiveness and reconciliation by his own death and resurrection (Heb. 4:14–10:39). Before Christ came, God appointed priests to symbolize what Christ would do. That is the basic idea: a type symbolizes something beforehand. It prefigures or foreshadows something else still to come.

The Larger Picture

In this book we explore how to find types in the Bible and how to interpret them. Our exploration is for practical purposes. We want to understand the Old Testament more deeply and to profit spiritually from it. We want to be able to show others how to grow in understanding it. This book is for ordinary readers of the Bible and for pastors and teachers who guide others in understanding the Bible. It builds on a long and helpful history of interpretation of biblical types. That history must be left to other books.2 Readers who want to know how this book differs from past studies of types are referred to appendix C.

1There is more than one way of defining the technical word type. And there are disputes about whether it should encompass a wider or narrower group of events and institutions and personages, together with the texts that discuss them. The simple description that we have just provided can suffice for a starting point. It has an affinity to Patrick Fairbairn’s description, which singles out two elements: resemblance and divine design. Under the aspect of design he says, “[Types] were designed by Him to foreshadow and prepare for the better things of the Gospel” (Fairbairn, The Typology of Scripture: Viewed in Connection with the Whole Series of . . . The Divine Dispensations [New York and London: Funk & Wagnalls, 1911], vol. 1, book 1, ch. 2, p. 46 [1.1.2.46]; we will include volume, book, and chapter numbers to help readers who may have a different edition). Fairbairn includes in his picture the idea of temporal unfolding in the history of redemption. He also affirms that types are “symbols” (1.1.2.52).

Complexities will be considered later. For more on the underlying Greek words, see our appendix B. For the relationship with analogy, see chapters 15, 25, and 29, and appendix C.

2Fairbairn, Typology of Scripture, 1.1.1.1–41; Richard M. Davidson, Typology in Scripture: A Study of Hermeneutical Τύπος Structures (Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 1981), 17–93; K. J. Woollcombe, “The Biblical Origins and Patristic Development of Typology,” in G. W. H. Lampe and K. J. Woollcombe, Essays on Typology, Studies in Biblical Theology 22 (Naperville, IL: Alec R. Allenson, 1957), 39–75; Jean Danielou, From Shadows to Reality: Studies in the Biblical Typology of the Fathers (London: Burns & Oates, 1960); Leonhard Goppelt, Typos: The Typological Interpretation of the Old Testament in the New, trans. Donald H. Madvig (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1982), 23–58. For an analysis of the recent state of discussion, see G. K. Beale, Handbook on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2012), 13–27.

1

Understanding the Old Testament

Before we focus more directly on types, let us consider briefly a larger question: Why is it important to understand the Old Testament?

The Challenge of Jesus’s Understanding of the Old Testament

On two separate occasions, recorded in Luke 24, Jesus indicates that the Old Testament is about him. The first of these occurred as he encountered two disciples on the road to Emmaus:

And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. (Luke 24:25–27)

Later, he spoke in similar terms to a larger group of disciples:

Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” (Luke 24:44–47)

It is worth looking at these two passages more carefully, especially the second one. “The Scriptures” here are the Old Testament. The Jews of Jesus’s time recognized three major divisions in the Old Testament. The “Law of Moses” contains the first five books, Genesis through Deuteronomy. “The Prophets” includes both what the Jews call the “Former Prophets,” namely the historical books Joshua, Judges, 1–2 Samuel, and 1–2 Kings; and the “Latter Prophets,” the prophetical books Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Hosea through Malachi. The third division in the Jewish reckoning is “the Writings,” which is more miscellaneous and includes all the other books of the Jewish canon (Ruth, 1–2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Lamentations, and Daniel). The Psalms is the most prominent in this third group, “the Writings.” According to Jesus, all three groups testify to his suffering and his resurrection. In Luke 24:44–47, the phrase “Thus it is written” introduces a summary of the thrust of the whole Old Testament, that is, “the Scriptures” that existed at the time when Jesus spoke, the time before the composition of any New Testament books.1

We may believe that what Jesus said is true, but still not see how it is true. How can it be that “the Scriptures” as a whole are about his suffering and his resurrection?

After Jesus spoke with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, they said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” (v. 32). They saw the true meaning of the Old Testament, and they were transformed. But we were not there with them to hear what Jesus said.

Jesus, however, taught not only these two disciples, but, as we have seen, a larger group, during the time between his resurrection and his ascension (Luke 24:44–51; see also Acts 1:3). Among these people were some of the human authors of New Testament books. The New Testament was written by people inspired by the Holy Spirit. Jesus sent the Spirit to continue his teaching, and this includes teaching them the meaning of the Old Testament:

“I [Jesus] still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” (John 16:12–15)

So through the New Testament we have instruction that enables us rightly to appreciate the Old Testament. And that appreciation means understanding how the Old Testament points to Christ.

The Old Testament Designed for Us

We should understand that God gave us the whole Bible for our instruction, not only the New Testament. Romans 15:4 says,

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

Likewise 1 Corinthians 10 indicates the value of the record of Israel in the wilderness:

Now these things [written in the books of Moses] took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. (v. 6)

Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. (v. 11)

Other Approaches to the Old Testament

God designed the Old Testament Scriptures for us. But how are we supposed to profit from them?

Luke 24 indicates that their meaning is found in their pointing forward to Christ. But in the church through the centuries, this meaning has not always been fully understood. We may consider various alternative paths that Christians have followed.

1. Use Just the New Testament

One path is to use just the New Testament. Quite a few pastors give sermons and teaching almost exclusively from the New Testament. Likewise, ordinary Bible readers may ignore the Old Testament and read only from the New.

The New Testament is indeed the word of God. But it makes up less than a third of the whole. This strategy of ignoring the Old Testament is not compatible with what God himself says in Romans 15:4 and elsewhere about the continuing value of the Old Testament.

2. Use the Old Testament for Moral Examples, Good and Bad

A second path is to use the Old Testament as a series of moral examples. This approach is called “exemplary preaching.” How should we evaluate it? Indeed, there are good and bad moral examples in the Old Testament. And there are quite a few mixed examples as well. There are people like Abraham and David who are examples of faith but who had serious moral failures at some time in their life. There are people like Ahab who were wicked, but who humbled themselves (1 Kings 21:27–29). The mixed examples are in fact quite confusing if what we want are clear, black-and-white moral examples.

But the main trouble is deeper. Such use of the Bible runs a serious danger of seeming to have a message that says we are supposed to save ourselves by our own strength in moral striving. “Be good like these good examples.” It ends up being moralism, with the message, “Save yourself,” not the good news of what God has done in Christ. Man, not God, ends up being at the center of the picture. The Bible does contain moral examples, but the point in recording them is never merely to be an example. There is instruction about God and his ways, ways that come to a climax in the work of Christ. Christ is the Savior. He, not our own moral striving, rescues us from sin and death.

3. Use the Old Testament Simply as a Historical Record

A third path is to use the Old Testament simply as a historical record. The Old Testament records what people said and did long ago. If we choose to, we can read it merely for information. Some people enjoy reading history. There is nothing wrong in studying the Bible for its historical information. But if that is all we do, we are treating the Bible as no different from any other record of the past. So this path of study is not adequate.

4. Use the Old Testament for What It Teaches Us about God’s Nature

A fourth path is to use the Old Testament to teach us about God. The Old Testament does teach us about God. And God is the same throughout all time. So the Old Testament teaching about God is relevant to us now. Still, this approach does not yet do justice to what Jesus indicates in Luke 24—that the Old Testament is not just about God in general, but more specifically about Jesus’s suffering and glory. It points forward to the redemption that he accomplished in history, once and for all.

5. Be Clever: Find Strange Secrets

A fifth path is to find special secrets in the Old Testament. Some people study the Old Testament to find secrets. They find things there that few other people have found. Their interpretations are clever and colorful, but strange. The trouble here is the obvious one: Are the “secrets” that they claim to find, secrets from the mouth of God, or are they secrets invented by the cleverness and overactive imagination of the person who is searching for them?

The Accessibility of the Bible

How do we evaluate the idea of secret messages? We might consider again the key passages in the New Testament about the value of the Old Testament: not only Luke 24, Romans 15:4, 1 Corinthians 10:1–11, but also Matthew 5:17–20, 19:3–9, 2 Timothy 3:15–17, and others. Such passages confirm that God caused the Bible to be written for everyone, not just for a special spiritual elite who allegedly would have secret access to secret truths. The New Testament writers were specially inspired by the Holy Spirit. But when they appeal to a passage from the Old Testament, the atmosphere is one in which they expect their audience to see the truth on the basis of what the Old Testament passage actually says. For example, the Bereans in Acts 17 are commended for “examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (v. 11). And as a consequence, “Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men” (v. 12). The Old Testament passages they examined had meanings open to examination, not secret meanings that had no connection with what an ordinary person could see.

We must also pay attention to a complementary truth. The work of the Holy Spirit is essential in bringing to life people who are spiritually dead (Eph. 2:1). Concerning Lydia, the seller of purple goods, the Bible says, “The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul” (Acts 16:14). The Holy Spirit has to work. His work is essential if people are going to be saved by placing their trust in Christ. But the hearts and minds of the hearers are also active. Lydia paid attention.

A similar principle holds for us as modern readers. We are supposed to ask God to help us and to send his Holy Spirit to open our hearts. We are not going to understand as we should unless the Holy Spirit gives us understanding:

[Paul prays] that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know . . . (Eph. 1:17–18)

In addition, as the Holy Spirit works in us, we are supposed to “pay attention.” Lydia paid attention to what Paul said, words inspired by the Spirit. We are supposed to pay attention to everything the Bible says. The problem is not that the message of the Bible is inaccessible, but that our hearts can be hardened by sin.

How to Use the Old Testament Wisely

In sum, the alternative paths do not really do justice to the role that God intended the Old Testament to have. We need to grow in our ability to understand the meaning of the Old Testament in relation to its fulfillment in Christ. One of the principal paths for this purpose is typology, the study of types (in the special sense of the word). The main purpose of this book is to develop skill in the study of types.

1Iain M. Duguid, Is Jesus in the Old Testament? (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2013), 9.

2

Interpreting Noah’s Flood

Before turning to the broader principles for the study of types, we may briefly consider two examples of passages that point forward to Christ. The first passage is Genesis 6:9–22, which leads up to Noah’s flood. What do we do with a passage like this one?

These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. . . . For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. . . . (Gen. 6:9–14, 17–19)

This passage may serve as an illustration of the alternative paths that we laid out in the previous chapter.

Path 1: Ignore the Old Testament

The first path is simply to ignore the Old Testament. We would then ignore this passage, as well as every other part of the Old Testament. We regard it simply as past and gone and irrelevant. But that is not right. We have seen that God has a design for us to learn from it.

Path 2: Look for a Moral Example

Can we find a moral example in the passage? We find a morally good example in Noah. And we find a morally bad example in the people around him:

And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. (Gen. 6:12)

The morally bad people experience a suitably bad end:

And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” (v. 13)

The moral lesson is obvious: do not be morally corrupt, or you will be destroyed by God; be righteous like Noah, and you will be saved from destruction.

The general moral principle is valid. God rewards righteousness and punishes wickedness. We may not always see just rewards in the short run, but we will see them at the time of final judgment (Rev. 20:11–15). But this truth is insufficient. Each of us comes into the world already corrupted by sin (Ps. 51:5; Rom. 3:10–11). We need to know how we can be saved from the sin in which we are already immersed. We cannot save ourselves. Noah is a worthy example. But his example cannot save us. And even Noah would not survive a minute inspection according to the perfect holiness of God (Ex. 33:20).

Well, then, shall we use Noah not as an example of righteousness, but as an example of faith? Hebrews 11:7 uses Noah in this way:

By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

This appeal to Noah is a valid use of the passage in Genesis. But it does not show us how the passage is fulfilled in Christ, in the way that Luke 24:44–49 indicates.

Path 3: Find Historical Information

A third path is to use the Bible for its historical information. There was a flood. Noah and his family survived, but the rest did not. That will be interesting to historians, and also indirectly for people who are looking for historical remains from the flood. But is that all?

Path 4: Find Teaching about God

A fourth path is to ask what the passage teaches us about God. The passage illustrates that God is righteous. He will not always put up with human sin, especially as it multiplies. God pays attention to righteous people like Noah. He is a God who can and does save people from calamity.

All these principles are true, but they do not yet tell us how this passage points forward to Christ.

Path 5: Find a Clever, Strange Meaning

As an example of strange interpretation, we may consider an interpretation of Philo of Alexandria (first century AD). Philo is commenting on Genesis 6:9, “These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation.” Philo explains the passage this way:

The offspring [generations] indeed of creatures compounded of soul and body, must also themselves be compound; horses necessarily beget horses, lions beget lions, bulls beget bulls, and so too with men. Not such are the offspring proper to a good mind; but they are the virtues mentioned in the text, the fact that he was just, that he was perfect, that he was well pleasing to God.1

Philo interprets the word “generations” (offspring) as referring to a kind of spiritual offspring produced by “a good mind.” The “offspring” consists in the virtues of being just and perfect. In this interpretation, Philo ignores the fact that Genesis 6:9 is the opening of an entire section of Genesis, and as such is parallel to 5:1 and 10:1, etc. He also ignores the fact that the next verse, verse 10, supplies the names of the actual sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Philo’s interpretation seems really strange until we set it in the context of what Philo is doing in his whole treatise, “The Unchangeableness of God,” and his treatises on other sections of Genesis. He consistently finds in the text in Genesis a second level of meaning, a meaning having to do with the purification of the mind by seeking God and by proper contemplation. The good mind and its virtues are regularly contrasted with base passions. In dealing with text after text, Philo sees in the text the schema of virtue and vice, and an emphasis on mental purification. The message that Philo supplies veers toward moralism.

Philo does affirm the centrality of God. God supplies us moral instruction. Everything has its source in God. God is good to those who seek him. But it is easy to read Philo and to think that it is up to us to save ourselves from sin and corruption by mental purification and seeking virtue. This is not the true message of salvation. Philo’s message aptly illustrates how arbitrary meanings can be imported into the Bible if we already have a schema that endorses such a mode of interpretation.

Typology

In sum, there are mistaken ways of dealing with this text. There are also ways that use the text only in one narrow aspect of its total value. Is there a better and more robust way?

In an approach that is sensitive to typology, we consider whether texts like Genesis 6:9–22 have a symbolic dimension in their literary and historical context. Is there anything here more than a bare account of events?

One of the more obvious aspects in Genesis 6 is the theme of God’s judgment. God evaluates the wickedness: “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (v. 5). Then he brings judgment: “Behold, I will destroy them with the earth” (v. 13). He saves Noah (v. 18). Both the judgment and the salvation have a symbolic depth. The judgment is not the final judgment. But it symbolizes and makes known the nature of God as Judge. In this way, it anticipates the final judgment:

. . . that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. (2 Pet. 3:5–7)

Likewise, the salvation of Noah and his family is not a salvation that gives them eternal life. But it symbolizes the power of God to give eternal life (see Gen. 3:22).

Because of this symbolic dimension, the story contains a typological aspect. It points forward to salvation and the judgment that take place in Christ. And indeed, this is how the New Testament treats the flood of Noah in more than one place:

For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. (Matt. 24:37)

. . . if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; . . . (2 Pet. 2:5)

. . . when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, . . . (1 Pet. 3:20–21)

All of the above New Testament passages indicate that there is a correspondence between Noah’s flood and later judgment. But none of them explains completely just how the personages and events of Noah’s flood correspond to later judgment. We can see some further correspondences. Noah, the righteous man, saves not only himself but also his family. Christ, the final, perfect righteous man, saves his spiritual family, namely all the saints who belong to him.

But we may also note elements of difference between the two events. Noah’s salvation is temporary. On the other side of the flood, we still see signs that human nature as a whole remains sinful: “The intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Gen. 8:21). Noah’s family has been saved from a watery death. But they will still have to face a future in which their bodies will eventually die, and they will have to face God’s eternal judgment. The underlying difficulty of sin has not been overcome. Christ’s salvation is superior because it deals with the root, not just the fruit, of sin. He has conquered death forever (Rom. 6:5–11; Heb. 2:14–15; Rev. 1:18).

Noah, then, is a type of Christ. And the flood is a type of judgment. Both Noah and the flood are forward-pointing symbols. This aspect of meaning enables us to see how the story of Noah anticipates and foreshadows the work of Christ. In this way, a typological analysis can go beyond the unsatisfying alternatives in how we treat the Old Testament.

It is appropriate, then, that we take time to consider principles for interpreting typological meanings in the Old Testament.

1Philo of Alexandria, “The Unchangeableness of God,” 25:118, in Philo, vol. 3, Loeb Library (London: William Heinemann; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1968), 69.

3

The Bronze Serpent (Numbers 21:4–9)

Let us consider another example of an Old Testament passage that points forward to redemption in Christ. Our passage is Numbers 21:4–9:

From Mount Hor they [the people of Israel] set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

Context

This passage is part of the book of Numbers. The book as a whole recounts various episodes that happen and arrangements that are made while the people of Israel are in the wilderness, on their way from Egypt to the land of Canaan. They have been delivered from slavery in Egypt (Exodus). They are destined to go to the land of Canaan, which God had promised to the descendants of Abraham. They are thus in a situation where they have already experienced a fundamental deliverance. But they have not yet arrived at a situation of complete fulfillment.

The book as a whole is a nonfiction prose Hebrew narrative. So the passage records actual events that happened to the people. It is one of a number of passages that illustrate a repeated problem of grumbling and faithlessness on the part of the people. God has appointed Moses to lead the people, under God’s direction. But the people repeatedly complain about both Moses and God.

A Major Theme: Sin and Deliverance

The context of the wilderness and the theme of complaining are both important. God is caring for his people in the wilderness, a region that presents the people with difficulties. The people repeatedly fail to trust God and obey him. Sin is there, in all its ugliness. The events are actual, unrepeatable events in history and also illustrations of the broader principles of sin and redemption. God’s relation to Israel illustrates principles for God’s relation to his people all the way through history, from the initial entrance of sin in Adam to the final triumph over sin in the new heaven and the new earth.

The events in the wilderness have symbolic depth. On the surface, the issues are issues of physical survival. To put it simply, the people need continued life. And for this purpose, they need food, water, health, protection from sickness and plague, protection from people groups who may oppose or attack them, and guidance to find a way to the land of Canaan.

The physical supplies come in the context of communion with God. It is not merely a matter of surviving physically in an inhospitable territory. It is a matter of surviving as a sinful people who have a holy God in their midst (Ex. 25:8–9). Israel is not just any people, but the special people of God (19:5–6). Israel is God’s “firstborn son,” as God instructs Moses to say to Pharaoh (4:22). God provides the physical provisions for Israel as one aspect and one expression of personal communion between himself and his people. There is a deep personal and spiritual dimension to the relation. So the issue in the wilderness is never merely a matter of continued physical life. Physical life symbolizes the deeper theme of true life in the presence of God.

This symbolic dimension to physical life comes to the surface already in Genesis 2–3, in what is said about the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eating from the second of the two results in death (2:17; 3:19). Eating from the first means life, as the name of the tree indicates. But what kind of life? When the tree of life is first mentioned, in 2:9, one might guess that only physical life is in view. After all, the other trees with their fruits are intended in an obvious way to nourish physical life. But when one arrives at 3:22, one finds that the endpoint is eternal life: “Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever . . .” Likewise, the death that comes from eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil encompasses both physical death and spiritual death. Physical death comes eventually, as 3:19 indicates. But spiritual death has come already, as the alienation of Adam and Eve from God signifies (3:8). The symbolic depth attached to the theme of life means that life in communion with God is signified by life in its physical dimension.

Likewise, when we come to the experience of Israel in the wilderness, the issue for Israel is both physical life and spiritual life. Except for Joshua and Caleb, the whole generation that came out of Egypt is condemned to die in the wilderness, in the sense of physical death. And why do they experience physical death? Because they have not trusted in God (Num. 14:5–12). Their physical death symbolizes the appropriate penalty of spiritual death, for people who rebel against God.

That is why the New Testament indicates that the events in the wilderness in some ways express principles concerning the people of God throughout the ages:

Now these things [events in the wilderness] took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. (1 Cor. 10:6)

Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. (1 Cor. 10:11)

For good news came to us just as to them [in the wilderness], but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. (Heb. 4:2; see 3:1–4:11)

The Need in Numbers 21:4–9

With this larger picture in view, we can consider the particular episode narrated in Numbers 21:4–9. In this incident, the people of Israel are faithless to God and show that they despise his care. In his holiness he sends them punishment in the form of “fiery serpents” (venomous serpents). The serpents are fitting vehicles for the punishment. The record from the past goes back to the original serpent in the garden of Eden, the serpent who tempted Eve. And behind this physical serpent stood Satan himself, who used the serpent as his mouthpiece. If the people of Israel want to follow evil, they get a fit punishment in the form of an animal who is a symbol of evil. And the animal brings death to them, death that is the punishment specified by God for violating his command in Genesis 2:17.

So the conflict in Numbers 21 has resonances with the initial conflict between mankind and the serpent, which took place in Genesis 3. The conflict continues, according to the promise in Genesis 3:15, as a conflict between the offspring of the woman and the offspring of the serpent. The offspring of the woman will triumph over Satan. This triumph takes place in Christ. He is the offspring of the woman and the chief offspring of Abraham (Gal. 3:16). But there are preliminary stages of the conflict in the time of Abel, and the time of Noah, and the time of Abraham. So likewise, the conflict continues in the time of Israel’s trek in the wilderness. Israel is supposed to be God’s special son. But Israel is continually slipping back into rebellion. Their hearts are not inclined to God.

The symbolic depth in Numbers 21:4–9 involves the issue of life with God, or death as the punishment for rebellion against God. So the physical death from the bites of the serpents symbolizes the ultimate penalty of spiritual death in alienation from God, who is the true source of life.

The people deserve to die. But they admit their sin. They call out to Moses to intercede. Of course, Moses himself is not sinlessly perfect. Nonetheless, he is a symbol of the final intercession of Christ (Heb. 7:25).

The Lord instructs Moses to “make a fiery serpent” (Num. 21:8). The bronze serpent is a symbolical representation of the serpents that bit the people. The remedy for sin comes in the form of a symbol of sin and death. This bronze serpent is put on a pole so that everyone can see it. “And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live” (v. 9).

The bronze serpent is a temporary remedy for a physical affliction of death. But the story of redemption, and the promise of the offspring of the woman (Gen. 3:15), implies that there will be a final remedy, supplied by God. This final remedy will itself achieve redemption through a cursed object that people can view spiritually. The use of a cursed object on a pole anticipates the role of Christ, who undertakes to bear the curse of sin and death on our behalf:

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. (Gal. 3:13–14)

Jesus explains the function of the curse beforehand to Nicodemus:

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. (John 3:14–15)

The Son of Man, Jesus himself, is “lifted up” on the cross, which in the Roman Empire was an instrument for crucifying notorious criminals. On the cross, Jesus is actually forsaken by God because he bears the curse for us (Matt. 27:46; 1 Pet. 2:24). By looking to Jesus in faith, believing that he can give us life through his death, we are healed spiritually (Gal.