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Study 6B  Prophesy - Allegory - Type


1. Prophesy


Many of the writers of the New Testament interpreted the events of Jesus’ life in the light of the Old Testament. This provided a necessary link between their traditional scriptures in the Old Testament and their new message about Jesus.   It was one of prophecy, made and fulfilled, using prophecy in its narrowest meaning ‑ that of predicting a future event.   The emphasis in this way of interpretation is, - The Old Testament predicts. The prediction is understood by its fulfilment in the New Testament.  The New Testament is understood because it is the fulfilment of the prediction.  In this way the two Testaments are inseparably linked and give meaning to each other.


 

 

This way of interpretation is limited because there are significant and long passages of the Bible that would have to be ignored because they have nothing to do with  prophecy or the fulfilment of it. 


 

However, the prophecy emphasis is the preferred method of reading the Old Testament by many New Testament writers.  A good example is the Gospel of Matthew where the theme of the fulfilment of prophecy appears repeatedly. In Matthew's Gospel such phrases as,  ‘All this happened in order to fulfil what the Lord declared through the prophet.....’  are used frequently.  The gospel writer sets the stage for this by using such phrases five times in the first two chapters.  Matthew 1:22 -


 

All this happened in order to fulfil what  the Lord declared through the prophet.


 

and 2:5‑6 -

 

and they referred him to the prophecy which reads: “Bethlehem in the land of Judah, you are far from the least in the eyes of the rulers of Judah; for out of you shall come a leader to be the shepherd of my people Israel.”


and 2:15 -

 

This was to fulfil what the Lord had declared through the prophet: “I called my son out of Egypt.”


 

and 2:17‑18 -

 

So the words spoken through Jeremiah the prophet were fulfilled: “A voice was heard in Rama, wailing and loud laments; it was Rachel weeping for her children, and refusing all consolation, because they were no more.”


 

and 2:23 -

 

This was to fulfil the words spoken through the prophets: “He shall be called a Nazarene.”


 

All these form part of the story of Jesus’ birth.   The author tells the story of the birth of Jesus in order to convince his Jewish audience  that  Jesus  is  the  One who fulfils all these prophecies


 

 It nearly looks as though the author of Matthew’s gospel is saying that what happened to Jesus happened for no other reason than because a prophet had predicted it, to fulfil a prophecy.


 

Although he makes less use of the theme of fulfilment of prophecy, the author of Mark’s gospel, does commence his Gospel with a quote from Isaiah in the Old Testament, thus setting his story firmly in the arena of fulfilling Old Testament prophecies.    Mark 1:2 -


 

In the prophet Isaiah it stands written:  “Here is my herald whom I send on ahead of you, and he will prepare your way.  A voice crying aloud in the wilderness, “Prepare a way for the Lord; clear a straight path for him.”

 

Luke gives us his version of Jesus’ first statement of what he saw as  his  mission  and  message  in  chapter  4:18‑19,   by   quoting Isaiah 61:1-2 -


 

The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me; he has sent me to announce good news to the poor, to proclaim release for prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind; to let the broken victims go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.


 

Luke 4:21 (from the Good News Bible) immediately goes on to report that Jesus said -


 

This passage of Scripture has come true today, as you heard it being read.

 

In the Acts of the Apostles, Luke, when retelling the sermons of both Peter and Paul uses the same theme,  in Acts 3:18 -

 

.....but this is how God fulfilled what he foretold in the utterances of all the prophets: that the Messiah should suffer.


 

and Acts 13:27 -

 

The people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognise him, or understand the words of the prophets which are read Sabbath by Sabbath; indeed they fulfilled them by condemning him.


 

Again it is noted, that the Letter of Paul to the Romans begins and ends with the same theme, as in Romans 1:2 -


 

This gospel God announced beforehand in sacred Scriptures through his prophets.


 

and Romans 16:26 -

 

..... and through prophetic Scriptures by eternal God’s command made known to all nations,  ..... be glory for endless ages!   Amen.

 

Most other New Testament books see this theme of prophecy made and prophecy fulfilled as crucial.   The above are only a sample of the numerous times this theme is used as a way of interpreting   Old   Testament   passages.    Some   people  have emphasised this link by saying that the New Testament is in the Old, concealed, and the Old is in the New, revealed.  

 

2. Allegory

 

Another way of interpretation, that blossomed early in the life of the Church, was that of allegory.  ‘Allegory’ is defined in the Macquarie Dictionary as -


 

figurative treatment of one subject under the guise of another; a presentation of an abstract or spiritual meaning under concrete or material forms.


 

This way of interpretation refers to a way of looking below the surface of the written text to find the underlying meanings.   These interpreters argued that the text had at least two levels of meaning, the literal and the spiritual.  There are numerous examples where this is a helpful way of interpreting a passage. 


 

Take for instance Revelation 3:20 -


 

Here I stand knocking at the door;  if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and sit down to supper with him and he with me.


 

Taken literally or at face value the verse is somewhat senseless to most people.   It is not really talking about someone coming to a house, knocking on the door to have supper with someone.  And most people don’t hear voices!  


 

However taken allegorically the verse has a wealth of meaning.   It could be looked at in this way.  The life and teachings of Jesus are a reality in our culture yet they do not necessarily have any important affect on us personally.   Christianity can be seen as ‘outside our personal space’.  

 


 

It could be said that a great deal of preaching is finding the spiritual meaning out of Biblical literature that is in concrete and material forms.   Preaching can be the uncovering of the deeper, spiritual level of the Biblical passage and thus may be stated as an allegorical  way of interpretation.  


 

While this can be a helpful way of looking at some passages of the Bible, it can be taken to extremes.  One extreme example is Saint Augustine's interpretation of the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

 

A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho ‑ Adam himself is meant; Jerusalem is the heavenly city of peace, from whose blessedness Adam fell; Jericho means the moon, and signifies our mortality, because it is born, waxes, wanes and dies. Thieves are the devil and his angels. Who stripped him, of his mortality; and beat him, by persuading him to sin; and left him half dead, because in so far as man can understand and know God, he lives, but in so far as he is wasted and oppressed by sin he is dead; he is therefore half dead. The Priest and the Levite who saw him and passed by, signify the priesthood and ministry of the Old Testament, which could profit nothing for salvation.    Samaritan  means  Guardian and  therefore  the  Lord himself is signified  by this name. 

 

The binding of the wounds is the restraining of sin. Oil is the comfort of good hope; bind the exhortation to work with fervent spirit. The beast is the flesh in which he deigned to come to us. The being set upon the beast is belief in the incarnation of Christ. The inn is the Church, where travellers are refreshed on their return from pilgrimage to their heavenly country. The morrow is after the resurrection of our Lord. The two pence are either the two precepts of love, or the promise of this life and that which is to come. The innkeeper is the apostle Paul.


 

Maybe Augustine has gone too far with allegory!


 

3.  A Type

 

Yet another process of interpretation popular in the early Church was that of recognising a type. It is called typology.   It is considered that a pattern exists within which different events and/or people can be linked and thus understood in a similar way.

 

Consider the statement, ‘Power corrupts’. There are many examples of this principle to which we could point.   Hitler, Soeharto, Saddam Hussein, etc. (You may wish to state your own examples.); they are each an example of a type of leader who exercises power.  It would probably be correct to say that they represent the principle - Power corrupts.


 

None of them individually explains the principle, however when considering them we can suggest that they are types that demonstrate the principle.   If we look at political leaders and leaders of commerce all over the world today, we would probably  support  the idea that, it is predictable that if someone has a lot of power, that person would have to be a special sort of person to resist being corrupted.  ‘Power corrupts.’


 

One may use this typological way of thinking to approach many different Biblical ideas.  Biblical typology involves an entire view of history with the Biblical story in it.   In typology, an event in history has meaning in itself but it also has a broader meaning by giving  indications of how to understand other similar events.


 

Whereas prophecy interpretation gives no real meaning to an event apart from its ability to predict something in the future, and whereas allegory interpretation gives no meaning to an event apart from its deeper or spiritual meaning, typology interpretation sees meaning in the event itself, refers to some future event and also uncovers an indication of a pattern of meanings for similar events. 


Looking at Isaiah 53:7 -

         

 Like a lamb about to be slaughtered, like a sheep about to be sheared, he never said a word.


 

The New Interpreter's Bible in Vol. 1, page 92 in Justol Gonzalez’s article ‘How the Bible has been interpreted in Christian tradition’, gives this explanation -


 

Interpreted prophetically, this passage clearly refers to Jesus and to none other. Before the time of Jesus, it had no meaning or applicability, except in pointing to the future. After the time of Jesus, its only significance is in confirming that Jesus is indeed announced by the prophet.


 

This Old Testament passage predicts something.  The New Testament  event  fulfils  it,  and  that's  the  sum  total of meaning  for both the Old and the New Testaments.  This is prophetic interpretation.

 

Continuing the Interpreter’s Bible quote from Gonzalez -


 

  If one interprets it allegorically, one tries to find hidden meanings in words like 'lamb' and 'slaughter', and one may come to the conclusion that the passage means, for instance, that true virtue, like a sheep, does not defend itself, but is willing to  give  itself  for others, as a sheep goes before its shearers in order to give up its wool, which will warm and comfort others.

 

This Old Testament passage has more than one level of meaning.  It is necessary to look underneath to find the spiritual meanings of the passage.    This is allegorical interpretation.

 

Quoting from the Gonzalez article further -


 

If one interprets the passage typologically, one will agree that the passage refers to Jesus, but this is so because God has so ordered history, that the just are repeatedly killed and persecuted for the redemption of others.   On this basis, it is quite possible that the passage, although correctly applied to Jesus, originally referred to the prophet  Isaiah, to a particular leader or to Israel itself. Also, since history continues along in the same pattern it is possible to apply the passage to ourselves without denying that it refers primarily to Jesus; when the Church suffers, the pattern of which the prophet spoke, and of which Jesus is the supreme instance, appears once again.


 

So, Isaiah 53:7 refers to some event that happened in its Old Testament context.  As well, it refers to Jesus in the New Testament.   However, it also refers to the same type of thing that happened to the church and to people generally, that can also happen today and in the future.  


 

What is told in the Old Testament passage is an example of a type, identifying a pattern of things that has happened, that happens today and that will happen in the future.  This is typological interpretation.

 

These three emphases in interpretation - Prophesy, Allegory and Typology - have been considered together because it can be helpful when they are linked.


 

Quotations for discussion


 

Prophetic interpretation can be too limiting; allegorical interpretation can completely miss the point; typological  interpretation can be too general and unrestricted.  Different Biblical passages lend themselves to one or other of these three ways of interpretation but not all three are helpful or even relevant to every passage.


 

Where there is a simple and obvious interpretation, it is probably the best one.  What do you think?




Print Booklet    (Download and print double-side, flip on short edge)    The text above has the text of the bookblets edited somewhat and because there are many pictures in the booklets, all reference to them has been omitted.