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Typos: Typological Interpretation of the Old Testament in the New

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This truly is a signficant work, originally published in German in 1939, now translated into this English edition.

How one views the fulfillment of OT prophecy is truly significant to one's theology, especially eschatology.

Using the word "typos" in Romans 5, Goppelt shows the biblical way of seeing type-anti-type throughout the Scriptures.

This unlocks the Bible, making it a unity rather than dispensations where grace is distributed differently. Rather, consistenly God deals with us through means of grace, all the time pointing ahead to the reality of Christ.

Divine redemption is thereby dominant to both Testaments, since Jesus and the apostles continally demonstrate they understand the typological method of interpretation.

Bible students will do well to read, ponder and apply the astute learnings of this book.

This is an older book, but the subject is vital to understanding the bible as the early Christians did. For the early Christians "only in the light of the NT fulfillment is the typological significance of an OT personage, event, or institution made clear" (p xvi).

The early Christians were drenched in typology. Paul, Justin Martyr, and Irenaeus wrote about Christ as being a typos, a type, a new Adam. And just as Adam was tested in the garden, so was Christ. Adam's soul "died" in sin after eating from the tree. Christ, who was without sin, redeemed humanity by dying on a tree.

In fact, "typology and the typological method have been part of the church's exegesis and hermeneutics from the beginning" (p 4). Frequently, when a prophecy is mentioned as being fulfilled in the NT, it is typological fulfillment which is meant. Not to grasp that point is to be lost, indeed, in trying to understand the bible.

The gospel authors saw Christ's role "to redemptive history by alluding to appropriate OT stories and by quoting suitable prophecies" (p 62). There is such a wealth of typological fulfillment in Christ's life that you could write whole books just listing them.

Christ is, indeed, a new Moses. Christ is also the paschal lamb. Just as Jerusalem represents Israel, so the temple represents Christ. "The destruction of old Zion and of the first temple is the ultimate typological fulfillment of the devastation that was announced by the prophets (Matt 23:38f alluding to Jer 22:5; 12-7). And, just as Christ predicted, within "one generation" the temple itself was destroyed, and the old Jewish sacrificial system and priestly cults were gone after the war in 70 AD.

"Jesus himself affirmed...his place in typology. The Pauline proclamation concerning the new people of God and the true Israel...can be traced to Jesus" (p 107).

If you have even the smallest interest in biblical studies, you need a copy of this book.