In the first article of this “Christ in the Pentateuch” series, Keith Kauffman instructs: “ … it is helpful to think of two broad categories of Christology in the Pentateuch (and the rest of the Old Testament as well): prophecy and prefigurement (typology).” This article focuses on the latter relating to the Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
An important reference is Luke 24:27, 44 where Christ says the Law of Moses, the Psalms, and the Prophets are all about Him—and John 5:39, that the Hebrew scriptures “are they which testify of me.”
Typology—the study of the prefiguring of Jesus in the Old Testament, is seen in Romans 5:14 where Adam is called a “figure” of the coming Christ, the Greek word being tupos, meaning type, image, or pattern. In this case, Adam is typological of the Messiah’s federal headship.[1] The New Testament also describes Old Testament types as “shadows of things to come” (Colossians 2:17; Hebrews 10:1); or, a “pattern” per Hebrews 8:5 with the Greek word there also being tupos.
C.J. Williams defines typology as “God’s selective use of Old Testament people, events, and institutions to serve as living prophecies of his covenant promises, centering upon the Person and work of Jesus Christ, for the reassurance of the faith of his people in all ages.”[2] He beautifully describes its purpose:
Our heavenly Father has … painted the impression of his Son on the canvas of history … types preserve historical reflections of him that retain their own particular power to move our hearts and strengthen our faith. Typology adds historical depth to our understanding of the Person and work of Christ. Just as a painting augments and interprets certain features of its subject, typology draws our attention to the features of the Gospel that God himself meant to accentuate over the course of history.[3]
Regarding “Typical Persons,” Milton Terry notes such is recognized “because of some character or relation which they sustain in the history of redemption.”[4] In his History of Redemption, Jonathan Edwards writes:
… it was needful that there should be a particular nation separated from the rest of the world, to receive the types and prophecies that were needful to be given of Christ, to prepare the way for his coming … These ends could not be well obtained, if God’s people … had lived intermixed with the heathen world … this calling of Abraham may be looked upon as a kind of a new foundation laid for the visible church of God, in a more distinct and regular state, to be upheld and built up on this foundation from henceforward, until Christ should actually come, and then through him to be propagated to all nations.[5]
Similarly, Nicholas T. Batzig shares, “Abraham was a type of Christ in that he was the prototypical stranger and foreigner … the federal head of the Covenant … the father of many nations.”[6]
The Topical Encyclopedia says that Jacob’s “life and experiences serve as a type of Christ, prefiguring aspects of the Messiah’s life and mission” and are discerned through his birth, election, name change to Israel, ladder to heaven vision, blessing of the nations, suffering, and triumph.[7]
Isaac was a type of Christ extraordinaire.[8]In Genesis 22:1-19, God put Abraham through the utmost test of faith as a picture of what would be God’s ultimate proof of love. Hebrews 11:17-19 says, By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.
Verse 19 says Isaac is a “figure,” a different Greek word than tupos conveying the same idea. Highlights of the scene demonstrate the heightened typology of Christ’s resurrection in Isaac:
- A man in his 30s obeying his father to be an offering;
- Wood for his self-sacrifice on his back;
- Bound upon the place of offering;
- Looks up and sees the hand of his father raised to kill him;
- Is the father’s only son: …(Genesis 22:2, 12; 1 John 4:9; John 3:35; Matthew 3:17 and 17:5);
- Rises up from the altar of death alive.[9]
Abraham held nothing back from God, not even his own son, to typify how God would not hold back His only begotten Son for our salvation. And neither Isaac nor Jesus held back even their own selves. In return, may Christians Hold Nothing Back from Jesus.[10]
Grant Van Leuven has been feeding the flock at the Puritan Reformed Presbyterian Church in San Diego, CA, since 2010. A bi-vocational pastor, he also serves as a resident chaplain for the San Diego VA Medical Center. Grant and his wife, Fernanda, have eight covenant children. He earned his M.Div. at the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh, PA.
[1] But it is not simply analogical or of parallel comparison and not all things of both are compared. See the author’s discussion on important distinctions of typology with Adam and Christ in his article placefortruth.org/could-adam-have-earned-eternal-life under the subheading, “Adam was a Typological Figure of the Second Adam—Only He Could and Would Earn Eternal Life.”
[2] C.J. Williams, The Shadow of Christ in the Book of Job (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2017), 8. See his outstanding discussion on the subject in his opening chapter, “What is Typology?” He also writes: “When any mere man or earthly event is given the lofty purpose to prefigure Christ, we should expect to find a principle point of correspondence bundled in myriad details of contrast. A type is not only meant to reflect its antitype, but to bring praise to what is perfect through its own imperfection.” 8. He makes good use of a classic work that also is highly recommended: Patrick Fairbairn, The Typology of Scripture, vol. 2 (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1864). Gregory K. Beale explains that for something to be a type, it must have 1) close analogical correspondence of truths about people, events, or institutions; 2) historicity; 3) a pointing-forwardness; 4) escalation in meaning between correspondences; and 5) retrospective. Gregory K. Beale, Handbook of the New Testament Use of the Old Testament: Exegesis and Interpretation (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2012), 19. See also Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., The Uses of the Old Testament in the New (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2001), 232: To be a type, there must be “1. Historical correspondence 2. Escalation in the antitype (in the NT) 3. Divine intent and designation (in the Old Testament) 4. Prefiguration of a devoiretre quality.” Milton Terry directs that, “There must be some notable point of resemblance … [Rom. v, 14-20] … Moreover, we always expect to find in the antitype something higher and nobler than in the type … (Heb. iii, 3) … The type must prefigure something in the future. It must serve in the divine economy as a shadow of things to come … The points of difference and of contrast between type and antitype should also be noted by the interpreter.” He notes that “Abraham’s faith in God’s word, and consequent justification (Gen. xv, 6), while yet in uncircumcision (Rom. iv, 10), made him a type of all believers who are justified by faith ‘apart from works of law’ (Rom. iii, 28). His offering of Isaac, at a later date (Gen. xxii), made him a type of working faith, showing how ‘a man is justified bye works and not by faith only’ (James ii, 24).” Milton S. Terry, Biblical Hermeneutics: A Treatise on the Interpretation of the Old and New Testaments (Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock, 1999), 247-48, 252.
[3] Williams, 8.
[4] Terry, 248.
[5] Jonathan Edwards, The History of Redemption (Grand Rapids: Associated Publishers and Authors Inc., Date?), 56. He continues: “So that Abraham being the person in whom this foundation is laid, is represented in scripture as though he were the father of all the church, the father of all them that believe ; as it were a root whence the visible church thenceforward through Christ, Abraham’s root and offspring, rose as a tree, distinct from all other plants ; of which tree Christ was the branch of righteousness ; and from which tree, after Christ came, the natural branches were broken off, and the Gentiles were grafted into the same tree. So that Abraham still remains the father of the church, or root of the tree, through Christ his seed. It is the same tree that flourishes from that small beginning, that was in Abraham’s time, and has in these days of the gospel spread its branches over a great part of the earth, and will fill the whole earth in due time, and at the end if the world shall be transplanted from an earthly soil into the paradise of God.” 56-57. Related, see how Stephen calls Abraham’s seed growing as the Old Testament nation with Moses the “church” (ekklēsia) in Acts 7:38 (the context speaking of Christ as the one there with them and of Whom Moses prophecies in Deuteronomy 18:18).
[6] “Jesus is the “Everlasting Father” (Isaiah 8:18, 9:6; Psalm 45:16; Hebrews 2:13) … who federally represented His people from every tongue, tribe, nation and language. The promises in Scripture are said to have been made to ‘Abraham and his Seed…who is Christ.’ All the promises made to Abraham were made to Him as the typical representative of the Covenant of Grace. Ultimately they were made to, and fulfilled in, Jesus Christ.” Nick Batzig, “Old Testament Personal Types and Shadows of Christ,” July 14, 2023: feedingonchrist.org/old-testament-personal-types-and-shadows-of-christ. See also biblehub.com/topical/ttt/t/types_of_christ–abraham.htm.
[7] “In these ways, Jacob serves as a type of Christ, illustrating through his life the themes of election, redemption, mediation, transformation, blessing, and triumph that are ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ.” biblehub.com/topical/ttt/t/types_of_christ–jacob.htm.
[8] See also biblehub.com/topical/ttt/t/types_of_christ–isaac.htm.
[9] God also provided another type with the ram (vs. 13, “in the stead of”). So Jesus Christ died in our stead as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29; Isaiah 53:7). Unlike Abraham of Isaac, Christ’s Father did not answer but struck Him with His wrath, so that Jesus would truly die and rise from the dead to offer the Good news to us (Psalm 22:1; Matthew 27:46; John 3:16-17; 1 Peter 1:18-21; Romans 8:32).
[10] To listen to the author’s sermon by this title on this text, visit sermonaudio.com/sermons/121211148474.