Remember these basic definitions and rules regarding similes and parables? Similes are formal comparisons. Parables are extended similes. If a parable does not begin with a simile, you should be able to reduce the parable to a simile. Parables are also stories that can actually take place. Because parables are extended similes, formal comparisons, they have one main point. Interpretation requires you to determine the central comparison of the parable. Pursuing all the details of a parable leads to trouble. It is the central comparison that counts.

With this brief review, we turn to another figure frequently used in the Bible: types. Similes, parables, and types are analogous; they belong to the same family. There is a formal comparison in each of them. Just as parables (extended similes) are stories that can actually take place, types are real persons, events, institutions, or offices. For example, Romans 5:14 speaks of “Adam who is a type of Him who was to come.” Adam, a real person, is a type of Christ, another real person. Adam is the type. Christ is the anti-type, or answer to the type.

Scripture formally compares types and anti-types. These comparisons are often made by way of simile. Moses says, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you” (Deut. 18:15). Did you catch the simile? Acts 3:19-22 indicates that Christ is the predicted prophet. Moses is a type of Christ. Moses is the type; Christ is the anti-type.

Here are two other examples. Look for the simile. “You were not redeemed with perishable things…but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ” (1 Pet. 1:18-19). The sacrifice of a lamb and the shedding of its blood on God’s altar was a type of the sacrifice of Christ and the shedding of His blood. These sacrifices were a vital part of the institution of the priesthood and the temple. The sacrifice of the lamb is the type. The sacrifice of Christ is the anti-type.

Look for the similes in 1 Peter 2:4-5. “Coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” Peter is making a formal comparison between the Old Testament temple and its building blocks and the New Testament temple, the Church, and its building blocks. In this case, the temple is the type. The Church is the anti-type.

As these examples show, types prefigure something in the future and of gospel import. A true type requires the presence of its anti-type. The appearance of Adam as a type requires the later appearance of Christ, the anti-type. Types are therefore prophetic; they always look forward.

In addition, because similes, parables, and types are in the same family, you interpret them by determining the central comparison between the type and anti-type. Adam is a type of Christ (Rom. 5:14). The comparison Paul makes is representative headship (Rom. 5:12-21). Adam is a representative head. Christ is also a representative head. Adam and Christ are different in a host of other ways but are alike in a key way.

To recap, like similes and parables, types are formal comparisons Scripture often designates by way of simile. Types are persons, events, institutions, or offices. Types always have an answer, an anti-type. They always look forward. They are prophetic. When you interpret a type, determine the central comparison Scripture is making.

—Dennis J. Prutow