TIP OF THE DAY 71: Red heifer, scapegoat, bloody bird as type-antitype

MJ. Smith

I am adding these posts to the previous tip list L/V 10 Tip of the Day This is a recreation of the post that got lost somewhere in the forum dungeon …

QUESTION71: Define the type/anti-type relationship.

ANSWER: from Perplexity:

In biblical interpretation, a type and antitype represent a prophetic relationship between elements in the Old and New Testaments. The type, found in the Old Testament, is a person, event, or institution that foreshadows or prefigures something to come in the New Testament. The antitype, found in the New Testament, is the fulfillment or completion of what was foreshadowed by the type.

This relationship is characterized by several key aspects:

Foreshadowing: The type serves as a spiritual "picture" or shadow of a future reality.

Fulfillment: The antitype is the realization or completion of what was prefigured by the type.

Divine design: Types are intentionally designed by God to point to their antitypes.

Historical reality: Both types and antitypes are based on real historical events, persons, or institutions.

Theological significance: The type-antitype relationship demonstrates the unity of God's plan throughout Scripture.

Examples of type-antitype relationships include:

Adam (type) and Christ (antitype): Adam prefigures Christ as the head of humanity.

The Exodus (type) and salvation in Christ (antitype): God's deliverance of Israel from Egypt foreshadows spiritual deliverance through Christ.

The Passover lamb (type) and Christ's sacrifice (antitype): The sacrificial lamb points to Christ's atoning death.

It's important to note that types may not correspond perfectly to their antitypes in every detail, and interpretation should be guided by clear biblical connections rather than arbitrary associations.

QUESTION71: How is a scapegoat a type of Christ?

ANSWER: Keach, Benjamin. Tropologia: A Key to Open Scripture Metaphors. London: William Hill Collingridge, 1856.

THE SCAPE-GOAT A TYPE OF CHRIST

Lev. 16:20, &c.

I. The Scape-goat, called in Hebrew, azazel, that is, the Goat gone away, &c., was so called, because he escaped alive; representing Christ Jesus alive in his divine nature, though put to death in his human nature, or alive after he rose again from the dead.

II. He was presented alive, that by him reconciliation might be made, and this after the other Goat was sacrificed; signifying, according to the learned, two things: (1.) The resurrection of Christ. (2.) Our rising with him, from the death of sin, to a life of grace, by the operation of the Spirit, &c.

III. “Aaron shall put or lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, &c., and he shall bear them,” Lev. 16:21. Figuring thereby, how Christ should bear all our sins, viz., the punishment due to them; “The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all,” Isa. 53.

IV. And so the He-goat was sent into the wilderness, or land not inhabited, which the Greek calleth abaton, wayless, or inaccessible: figuring the utter abolishing of our sins by Jesus Christ, both from the face of God, that so they may not appear before him against us, to condemn us, or be imputed or charged upon us, not have any dominion or power over us.

V. They were to confess upon the head of the goat all their iniquities; signifying if we would have our sins carried away, and for ever be forgotten, we must confess them, &c. By this, saith Ainsworth, it appeareth, that as the killed Goat figured Christ killed, or put to death, for our sins; so this living Goat figured him also, “who bore our griefs, and carried our sorrows,” Isa. 53:4–6. And because Christ was not only to die for our offences, but also to rise again for our justification; and because these two things could not fitly be shadowed by one beast, which the priest having killed, could not make alive again: therefore God appointed two, that in the slain beast Christ’s death, and in the live beast his life and victory might be shadowed. See the like mystery in the two birds, for the cleansing the leper.

QUESTION71: How is a red heifer a type of Christ?

ANSWER: Keach, Benjamin. Tropologia: A Key to Open Scripture Metaphors. London: William Hill Collingridge, 1856.

THE SACRIFICE OF THE RED HEIFER A TYPE OF CHRIST

Numb. 19

I. The colour of this beast was red. As other Sacrifices of beasts prefigured Christ; so this, saith Ainsworth, in special figured him. Red signified his human nature, and participation of our afflictions, and the bloodiness of his agony, and grievous passion.

II. She must be without blemish, and upon whom never yoke came. This signified the perfect holiness of Christ, who never bore the yoke of sinfulness, nor was subject to the laws or precepts of man.

III. The Heifer was burned without the host, and her blood sprinkled seven times before the tabernacle of the congregation, which signified Christ’s suffering without the gates of Jerusalem, Heb. 13:11, 12.

Frank Hodges

Was this all found on Perplexity? I haven’t messed with Perplexity much, but it seems to be the consensus that it’s the best AI for research. Have you found that to be the case? Do you typically use it for a jumping off point for Logos topics, or as a replacement for Logos search?

MJ. Smith

The type-antitype is quoted from Perplexity; the other two questions, I used a precise book search for because I knew what was likely in my library.

I have used Perplexity very heavily in the tips for general information and broad scopes as Logos is hard to coax into "put the information in context" types of questions. I use Perplexity because of its willingness to not provide an answer (rather than invent one) and because it gives me solid references to verify an answer I am uncertain of. I occasionally need to switch to ChatGPT or Gemini when I need help on the correct terminology for a chatbot to recognize. I find both of them more willing to invent answers than Perplexity - especially when it comes to recognize historical sequence. All three of them have trouble remembering I don't use the truncated Protestant canon. ChatGPT could not be convinced to keep the 1 year and 3 year Jewish reading cycles separate.

Logos is to be preferred for more Biblical questions although getting it to parse the question correctly can be problematic. But I use it a great deal more in actual study than in preparing training materials.

Frank Hodges

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1344719#Comment_1344719

This is great. Thanks.

I haven't used AI much for Bible Study, not because of any fears or anything, but mostly because I can never think what to prompt it. The few times I have, even GPT has provided some decent answers. Knowing Perplexity uses citations, I'll probably be using it instead in the future.

I have used NotebookLM enough to like it. I've inserted several manuscripts, Bible Studies, and other random (sometimes incoherent) works of mine into Notebook and it made pretty good sense of them, all things considered. I especially like the podcast generation it does. I've yet to spend a lot of effort to have it generate content on other people's works, but I do actually have a list of "someday" to-be-read books in epub format and I've been thinking about copying them into Notebook and generating podcasts for each of them to get a summary podcast and listen to each of them to determine my next read.

One potential use case I've really been considering is generating an outline of sorts with certain works ranging from the Ante-Nicene era to the Reformation era and seeing if it could help me determine specific works that would answer questions I might have on certain topics. I haven't really determined the best way to go about this yet other than creating a word doc and copy pasting works from CCEL and EEBO and prompting NotebookLM to "Generate an overall outline of all these works". Someone with more understanding would be better suited to the task, but I think it'd be neat. Almost like a smart database of historical Christian works. Do you (or anyone reading this with a good understanding of LLMs) have any suggestions on which LLM would be best suited for this task?

Frank Sauer

Partially off-topic - partially on topic in regards to Perplexity…. I received a free year of Perplexity Pro and have had a little "fun" with it.

David Thomas

On the subject of type/anti type I found the definition in this podcast VERY helpful - https://www.preachingandpreachers.org/preaching-podcast/episode-306-preaching-old-testament-narratives/

MJ. Smith

Do you (or anyone reading this with a good understanding of LLMs) have any suggestions on which LLM would be best suited for this task?

Being Catholic gives me an unfair advantage here. https://www.magisterium.com/ I would expect other religious organizations will follow suit soon.

Frank Sauer

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1344743#Comment_1344743

Though not Catholic - I really appreciate you posting that link - that appears to be an excellent resource