Deeper Bible Study
Jesus said all the Scriptures testify of Him — but how? A guide to reading the Old Testament the way the New Testament authors did: seeing Christ throughout, without reading Him in where He isn't.
Study this in the app →After His resurrection, Jesus walked two disciples through 'Moses and all the prophets' and showed how the Scriptures pointed to Himself (Luke 24:27). The New Testament writers learned to read the Old the same way — seeing in its people, events, and institutions God-designed patterns that anticipate Christ. A type is a real, historical foreshadowing; its greater fulfillment is the antitype. Done rightly, this opens up the whole Bible; done carelessly, it turns Scripture into a guessing game. This study learns the practice from the Bible itself.
The earliest Christians did not invent this method — Jesus and the apostles modeled it. Paul calls Adam 'a foreshadowing of him who was to come' (Romans 5:14), names Christ 'our Passover' (1 Corinthians 5:7), and reads the wilderness rock as Christ (1 Corinthians 10:4). Hebrews calls the tabernacle 'a copy and shadow' of heavenly things (Hebrews 8:5). The discipline is to follow where the text and the New Testament actually lead, rather than importing meanings the authors never intended.
“Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”
Jesus Himself teaches that the whole Old Testament points to Him.
“For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote about me.”
Moses' writings were, in part, about Christ.
“...a festival day or a new moon or a Sabbath day, which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ's.”
The old festivals are shadows; Christ is the substance that casts them.
“For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never... make perfect those who draw near.”
A shadow points beyond itself to a greater reality.
“Now all these things happened to them by way of example, and they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come.”
Old Testament history was recorded as patterns written for us.
“...Adam, who is a foreshadowing of him who was to come.”
Even a person — Adam — can be a divinely-intended pattern of Christ.
On the road to Emmaus, how did Jesus say the Old Testament relates to Him (Luke 24:27)?
Answer: All the Scriptures point to and testify of Him
Jesus did not give the disciples new facts so much as new eyes — showing how the whole Old Testament, from Moses onward, was pointing to Him all along. This is the foundation of reading Scripture typologically: the Old Testament is not a separate religion but a story that leads to Christ.
Word study: 'explained' is Greek diermeneuo — to interpret thoroughly; Jesus gave a sustained, Christ-centered reading of the whole Old Testament.
Context: Two discouraged disciples already knew the Scriptures by heart; what they lacked was eyes to see Christ within them.
What is a biblical 'type'?
Answer: A real person, event, or institution God designed to foreshadow a greater reality in Christ
A type is not a fanciful symbol or a coincidence; it is a real, historical person, event, or institution that God designed to prefigure something greater in Christ. Adam truly lived — and was also a pattern pointing to the 'last Adam.' Recognizing this protects us from both ignoring the Old Testament and abusing it.
Word study: Greek typos — a mark or impression (used for the print of the nails, John 20:25), then a pattern or mold.
Context: Paul explicitly calls Adam a typos of Christ: a historical man who prefigures a greater one to come.
In Colossians 2:17, how do the law's festivals relate to Christ?
Answer: They are a shadow; the substance (the 'body') is Christ
Paul calls the old festivals and food laws a 'shadow' — real, but pointing beyond themselves to something greater. The 'body,' the substance that casts the shadow, is Christ. Once the reality has come, we cling to Him rather than going back to the shadows that were always meant to lead us to Him.
Word study: 'shadow' is skia, deliberately contrasted with soma, the 'body' that casts it — Christ is the reality.
Context: Paul is urging the Colossians not to let anyone condemn them over shadows now that the substance has arrived.
What does 1 Peter 3:21 reveal about the New Testament's own method of reading the Old?
Answer: It uses typological vocabulary, calling baptism the 'antitype' of the flood
Peter draws a careful correspondence between Noah's deliverance through water and the salvation pictured in baptism — and the word he uses for that correspondence is the technical term for a type's fulfillment. This shows that reading the Old Testament typologically is not a later invention; it is how the inspired apostles themselves read it.
Word study: Greek antitypos — the impression that answers to the stamp; the New Testament writers reasoned typologically by design.
Context: Peter writes to suffering believers, assuring them that the God who rescued Noah saves them too — the pattern points forward to Christ.
Which principle keeps typology faithful rather than fanciful?
Answer: Following textual warrant and the NT's own use, with escalation to something greater
Faithful typology is disciplined: it follows patterns the text itself sets up and the New Testament confirms, and it expects escalation — the fulfillment is always greater than the foreshadowing. Jesus reads the bronze serpent as a type of His own lifting up, and the reality (eternal life) far exceeds the original (physical healing). That restraint is what separates sound reading from imaginative overreach.
Word study: Hebrews' recurring 'how much more' signals escalation — the antitype always surpasses the type.
Context: Hebrews builds its entire argument on God-given patterns (tabernacle, priesthood, sacrifice) fulfilled and surpassed in Christ.
How is typology different from unrestrained allegory?
Answer: Typology rests on God-designed, historical correspondence; loose allegory can make a text mean almost anything
Typology is anchored: it depends on real history and God-intended correspondence, and it lets Scripture set the boundaries. Untethered allegory floats free, turning details into codes until a passage can mean whatever the reader wishes. Even Paul's single labeled 'allegory' stays tied to the actual Hagar and Sarah and to the covenants they picture — a model of restraint, not license.
Word study: Even Paul's verb allegoreo (Galatians 4:24) stays bound to real history and to the two covenants — not free-floating symbolism.
Context: The apostles saw Christ throughout the Old Testament while consistently letting the text, not their imagination, govern the meaning.
Solid food for the mature — “who by reason of use have their senses exercised” (Hebrews 5:14).
Reading types well is a discipline with guardrails. Four principles keep it faithful.
First, textual warrant: a true type is rooted in the Old Testament's own trajectory and is normally confirmed by the New Testament's own use — not invented by our imagination. The bronze serpent becomes a type because Jesus says so (John 3:14-15), not because we found a clever parallel. Second, escalation: the antitype is always greater than the type — Hebrews' refrain is 'how much more.' The lamb pointed to a better Lamb; the temple to a greater Temple. Third, historical reality: a type really happened. Typology does not deny the literal event; it sees the further pattern God built into it. Fourth, Christ-centered, not Christ-flattening: the Old Testament keeps its own God-given meaning in its own context; typology builds on that meaning rather than erasing it.
It also helps to distinguish three things that are often confused. Typology sees God-designed correspondence between an earlier and a later reality (Adam and Christ). Analogy simply notes a useful similarity for teaching, without claiming divine design. Allegory treats details as coded symbols — a method that, left untethered, can make a passage mean almost anything. Even Paul's one explicit 'allegory' (Galatians 4:24) stays anchored to the historical Hagar and Sarah and to the two covenants they represent. The goal is to read as the apostles did: seeing Christ throughout the Old Testament, while letting Scripture — not our cleverness — set the limits.
“...who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, even as Moses was warned by God... 'See... that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain.'”
The earthly tabernacle was a patterned copy of a greater, heavenly reality.
“This is a symbol of baptism, which now saves you...”
Peter calls baptism the 'antitype' answering to the flood — the New Testament's own typological vocabulary.
“But Christ having come... through the greater and more perfect tabernacle... entered in once for all into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption.”
Escalation: the true and greater sanctuary, surpassing its shadow.
“These things contain an allegory, for these are two covenants...”
Even here Paul stays tied to real history and the covenants, not free-floating symbols.
The Greek typos (τύπος) means the mark left by a blow — the very word for the print of the nails in Jesus' hands (John 20:25) — and then a pattern or mold. Its counterpart antitypos (ἀντίτυπος, 1 Peter 3:21) is the impression that answers to the stamp. The other key term is skia (σκιά), 'shadow'; in Colossians 2:17 the shadow is set against the soma (σῶμα), the 'body' that casts it — which is Christ. A shadow is real and truly connected to the object, yet you would never mistake it for the thing itself.
Try it: read how the bronze serpent of Numbers 21 is taken up by Jesus in John 3:14-15. Notice the genuine correspondence — and the escalation, from a healed body to eternal life. Let the New Testament train your eye before you go looking on your own.