Typology (bible)
Typology (from ancient Greek τύπος týpos "image, example") - also called prefiguration - is in the interpretation tradition of the Bible the reference to a person or an event from the Old Testament (seldom also from ancient mythology or from ancient legends), the type , with a person or event from the New Testament , the antitypos . It is primarily about “promise” and “fulfillment”: what is announced in the Old Testament is completed in the New Testament.
Diffusion and intent of the typology
The typology was a widespread and popular way of interpreting the Old Testament, especially in early Christian times (but also in the Middle Ages). It was intended to make it clear that Christ was really the one whom the prophets in particular had pointed out. Contrasts such as “Just as Jonas lay in the belly of the whale for three days, Christ was also in the grave for three days” should prove the correctness of the promise.
From this perspective, the Old Testament was full of signs that could be interpreted in the direction of Christ: the type (figure) from the Old Testament corresponded to the antitype in the New Testament. So it was about a demonstration of Jesus Christ as the fulfiller of the promise, it could only be he who was pointed out.
Early Christianity tried to persuade people with typologically based consistency.
There is another reason for the spread of the typology in early Christian times; Pictures from the Old Testament were harmless, they could be represented without danger for Christians, since they could also come from the Jewish culture and this was not exposed to any persecution. The first Christian portraits (e.g. in the catacombs) therefore show not only symbols but also Old Testament representations that were read typologically by Christians.
Application of the typology
The typological procedure lies in the so-called reflective quotations, which already form the basis of the Gospel of Matthew over a large part, e.g. As when receiving the tens bids on the Sinai the Bergpredigt is compared with Christ.
Even Paul thinks typological. The juxtaposition of Adam and Christ is of central importance to him . In Rom 5,14 ELB he calls Adam the typos tou mellontos - "example for the coming (Christ)". Paul also typologically interprets various stations of the exodus and desert wandering of the people of Israel in 1 Cor 10 : 1–13 EU . For example, he combines the passage through the Red Sea with baptism or the heavenly feeding and the water from the rock with the Lord's Supper . He argues that all of these events are archetypes (Greek τύποι / typoi) that Christians used to admonish.
In Christian art , the typology is omnipresent, as it is in the nature of pictorial and allows full relationship symmetries.
In addition to the typological comparisons from the Old Testament, there are also those that refer to “pagan” antiquity and those that refer to natural phenomena. As examples of pagan antiquity, the Emperor Augustus and the Sibyl of Tibur , who are types for the birth of Christ , may be considered. Naturally phenomenal types are e.g. B. the lion, who after three days wakes up his stillborn cubs by roaring, or the phoenix , who rises from the ashes. Both are mentioned in the Physiologus and are types for the resurrection of Christ.
Examples
- The brazen serpent, erected by Moses in the desert, protects the Jews from death by the plague of snakes - Christ brings life on the wood of the cross
- Jonah is spat out again after 3 days by the whale - Christ has descended into the kingdom of death, on the third day he rose from the dead
- Israel is fed in the wilderness with manna - Christ is the Eucharist a
- Israel travels through the Red Sea to freedom - the believing Christian comes into new life through baptism
- Samson lifts the gates of Gaza - Christ rises from the dead
- Joseph was sold by his brothers - Jesus was betrayed and sold by Judas
literature
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Ursula Brumm : The religious typology in American thought: its significance for American literary and intellectual history (= studies of American literature and history. Vol. 2). Brill , Leiden 1963.
- Revised English translation: American Thought and Religious Typology . Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick NJ 1970.
- Stefan Felber: Typology as a way of thinking in biblical theology . In: Herbert H. Klement, Julius Steinberg (ed.), Themed book on the theology of the Old Testament. Wuppertal 2007, pp. 35–54 (content of the volume: see http://www.gbv.de/dms/hebis-darmstadt/toc/190311088.pdf ).
- Leonhard Goppel : Typos. The typological interpretation of the Old Testament in the New . Bertelsmann, Gütersloh 1939. Reprint: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1990, ISBN 3534052730 .
- Stuart George Hall: Typology. In: Theological Real Encyclopedia . Vol. 34, 2002, pp. 208-224.
- Bernd Mohnhaupt: Networks of relationships. Typological art of the Middle Ages. Bern [u. a.] 2000.
- Sabine Schrenk : Typos and Antitypos in early Christian art (= yearbook for antiquity and Christianity . Supplementary volume 21). Aschendorff Verlag , Münster 1995, ISBN 3-402-08105-9 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ For example Hildegard Cancik-Lindemaier , Dorothea Sigel: Art. Allegorese (6c). In: The New Pauly . Vol. 1. Stuttgart 1996, Col. 522.
- ↑ Cf. Augustinus , Quaestiones in Heptateuchum 2.73: Novum Testamentum in Vetere latet, et in Novo Vetus patet. - "The New Testament is hidden in the old, and in the new the old is evident."