Typology for Dummies (Including Me), Part 1

The familiar yellow-and-black "For Dummies" instructional books were born from a universal truth: tech manuals are punishing reads. It all started in the late '80s, when Dan Gookin wrote DOS For Dummies in plain, easy-to-understand language. His manuscript was intergalactically rejected until IDG Books released the first version in November 1991. HR responded with mandatory drug testing. They needn't have worried. DOS for Dummies was a bestseller, as millions discovered they loved "How To" books that spoke to them like they were a human being. Plus -and this is the genius here- IDG employed humor and empathy in every Dummies book. The series became so popular that the stigma of "studying up" on something vanished. People were fine with admitting they were a "Dummy" about something. That's because readers knew they were a Dummy about something, not about everything. Carrying a "For Dummies" book showed the world you were aware of your ignorance and you were doing something about it. You wouldn't be a Dummy for long. And Socrates did say "the beginning of Wisdom is "I don't know." Today there are "For Dummies" books on every topic under the sun. Heck, even I wrote one -The Siemens S12 Handsfree Car Kit for Dummies- although IDG changed my Cheap Trick jokes to Abba jokes. Ugh, editors! And that's why I ask you, patient reader, to bear with me as I posit that you and I are Dummies about Biblical Typology. But it isn't our fault. We didn't have a nice yellow-and-black book as a cheat code. No, in our day we read Bible typologies in the snow, uphill both ways... What's a typology, you ask? What, are you some kinda Dummy?

Well... NOT FOR LONG.

What is Typology? Formally, "A biblical typology is a hermeneutical framework within Christianity that discerns a divinely orchestrated pattern of correspondence between earlier scriptural persons, events, or institutions and their later, more complete realizations. In this schema, the earlier “type” is understood not merely as a historical occurrence, but as a providentially embedded prefiguration that finds its ultimate fulfillment in a corresponding “antitype,” often revealed in the New Testament." In Dummy-speak, typology is when an person, place, or thing in the Old Testament hints at a similar -but more important- person, place, or thing in the New Testament. How is This Possible? How can typology even happen, given that the Bible is not a book, but a library of 66 books written by multiple authors living centuries apart, writing about different events in different places and times, using three different languages? Easy. Because while the Bible is indeed a library, all those books and chapters and verses -valid as they are on their own- are also subplots in One Big Story. Don't believe me? What do I gotta do, draw you a picture? Okay...

( The Internet is useful sometimes. )

What you're looking at is a diagram of tiny thin lines showing every time a verse in the Bible references another event or verse in Bible. If the Old Testament and the New Testament were two completely separate stories, we'd see two distinct arches that only link within their own testament. There would be no overlap.

But that doesn't happen. Instead we see a single arch made up of 63,779 fine lines, stretching from Genesis to Revelation.Everything overlaps, with no gaps. And that can only happen when there is one deeper, overarching story.

And what is that One Big Story? The story of a loving God that works in every way imaginable to be with the creation that He loves so dearly. That creation is you. Yeah, YOU. Have trouble believing that? I don't blame you. I felt the same way for (cough, cough) decades of my life. And that's because we were taught to read the Bible book-by-book, starting in Genesis and ending in Revelation. And there's nothing wrong with that. But the the book-by-book method doesn't keep a chronological timeline of the One Big Story, and that doesn't showcase typologies at their most powerful.

No, book-order reading sometimes jumps back-and-forth in time like a Fellini or Tarantino film. Or that movie you've watched in snippets over five years while channel surfing or doom scrolling. It's difficult to see what prefigures what, so it's easier to miss God's handiwork across and within the millennia. To best appreciate typology, it helps to read the Bible chronologically, as people, places, and things appear in linear human time. That way, we can make connections between the first, foreshadowing event -the type- and the greater, fulfilling culmination found in the later event -the antitype-. But don't get it twisted: the antitype is a very, very good thing.

( AI is useful sometimes. )

I recommend reading The Bible Recap chronological reading plan. It's a great start to seeing the One Big Story unfold, and it adds summaries every three chapters or so. You will learn the Bible's plot and its many people, places and things with a special focus on the sequence of events. All of this prepares you to recognize types and the antitypes clearly. But be forewarned; this approach does require substantial -albeit highly rewarding- reading. What we really need are some examples, and that calls for... a listicle! Next Time: Seven Biblical Typologies of events in the Old Testament that foreshadow events fulfilled in an even greater way in the New Testament. I'll try not to cheat and use the three mentioned in the graphic above (no promises, though...).

During Covid, the author rediscovered cityonahilldfw.com. Post-vaccination he snuck into a service and felt zero social pressure. He's a member now and everyone knows he sucks at small talk. They don't care: it ain't that kind of church.