Typology is a form of interpretation. It originated as a branch of hermeneutics, which originally referred to principles for interpreting the Bible and has since become the term used for the general interpretation of texts. Typology established relationships between the people and events in the Old and New Testaments and was originally aimed at making both Testaments into one cohesive work. St. Augustine, an early medieval theologian, explained in a letter that “In the Old Testament the New Testament is concealed; in the New Testament the Old Testament is revealed.”
Typology supports the idea that the events of the New Testament fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament. Often, Old Testament figures are called types, and the New Testament characters they prefigure are called anti-types. One example is reading Adam as a prefigure of Christ. Another example is the idea that the manna provided to the children of Israel wandering in the wilderness prefigures the bread used in the sacrament of Communion. St. Paul and the early church founders were the first to use this sort of biblical interpretation in order to give their new religion a sense of tradition. Typology became a literary device used in much of the Christian literature that followed, including John MILTON’s Paradise lost. See also allegory.
Works about Typology
Keenan, Hugh T., ed. Typology and Medieval English Literature. Stoughton, Mass.: AMS Press, 1992.
Lodge, David. The Modes of Modern Writing: Metaphor, Metonymy, and the Typology ofModern Literature. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1977.
Lupton, Julia Reinhard. Afterlives of the Saints: Ha-giography, Typology, and Renaissance Literature. Palo Alto, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1996.
Miner, Earl, ed. Literary Uses of Typology: From the Late Middle Ages to the Present. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1977.
