11 Unique Types in the Bible for your enrichment

What is a Type?

A type is a figure, whether a person or thing, representing something or someone else in striking similarity.

Here are 11 unique types in the Bible:

Adam is a type of Christ 

Romans 5:14; 1Corinthians 15:45 “So it is written: ‘The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.'” (NIV)

Melchizedek is a type of Christ 

Who is he?

This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. 

First, his name means “king of righteousness”; then also, “king of Salem” means “king of peace.” Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God he remains a priest forever [emphasis mine] (Hebrews 7:1-3, NIV).

Noah’s flood is a type of baptism 

It pictures the baptism of the Spirit when we are saved through belief in Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection—1Peter 3:20-21

Leaven (yeast) is a type for false teaching, hypocrisy, and sin—

Matthew 16:6, 11-12; 1Corinthians 5:8

The earthly tabernacle (portable worship center) is a type of the heavenly sanctuary for the worship of God

We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man. 

Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, and so it was necessary for this one also to have something to offer. If he were on earth, he would not be a priest, for there are already men who offer the gifts prescribed by the law. 

They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” 

But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises. (Hebrews 8:1b-6, NIV)

Old Testament sacrifices are a type of Christ—

Leviticus 4:2-3,12; Hebrews 9:7-15,18-25; 10:1-22,29; 13:11-13; 1Peter 1:19; Revelation 5:6

Hebrews 9:7-15,18-25

Heb 9:7 But only the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance.

8 The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was still standing.

9 This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper.

10 They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings– external regulations applying until the time of the new order.

11 When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation.

12 He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.

13 The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean.

14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

15 For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance– now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant. (NIV)

Heb 9:18 This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood.

19 When Moses had proclaimed every commandment of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people.

20 He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.”

21 In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies.

22 In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

23 It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

24 For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence.

25 Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. (NIV)

Hebrews 10:1-22,29

Heb 10:1 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming– not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.

2 If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.

3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins,

4 because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me;

6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased.

7 Then I said, ‘Here I am– it is written about me in the scroll– I have come to do your will, O God.'”

8 First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them” (although the law required them to be made).

9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second.

10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

11 Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.

12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.

13 Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool,

14 because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he

Manna, the bread eaten by the Israelites in the wilderness, is a type of Christ—

John 6:32-35; 1Corinthians 10:3

John 6:32-35

Joh 6:32 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.

33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

34 “Sir,” they said, “from now on give us this bread.”

35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. (NIV)

The bronze serpent is a type of Christ—

Numbers 21:9; John 3:14-15

Numbers 21:9

Nu 21:9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived. (NIV)

John 3:14-15

Joh 3:14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,

15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. (NIV)

Joshua is a type of Christ 

(see today’s Bible study)

David is a type of Christ—https://biblehub.com/sermons/auth/hall/king_david_a_type_of_christ.htm

The Church is Christ’s Bride, a type of the body of Christ—

Revelation 21:2,9; 22:17

Revelation 21:2,9

Re 21:2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

Re 21:9 One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. (NIV)