Christology · guided walk
Typology of Christ
Every major Old Testament figure foreshadows the coming Messiah.
Before you walk
Where this trail goes
Long before Bethlehem, God was drawing a portrait. This walk follows nine Old Testament figures and moments (a beloved son carried up a mountain, a brother sold for silver, a spotless lamb, a serpent lifted on a pole, a leader named Yeshua, a kinsman who redeems, a king promised an everlasting throne, a prophet three days in the deep, a fourth man walking in fire) and watches each one trace the same silhouette. These are types: real people and real events that God shaped in advance to foreshadow the Messiah. None of them is forced; Jesus Himself claimed the serpent and the sign of Jonah as pictures of His own death and rising. Walk the stops in order, and the portrait assembles itself, until John the Baptist points and gives it a name.
10 stops on this walk.
Stop 1 of 10
Genesis 22:2
“Take your son,” God said, “your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. Offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”
Genesis 22:2BSB The portrait opens: a father offering his beloved only son on Moriah, where Christ would later die.
"Thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest": the first time the Bible uses the word love, it is a father's for a son he is about to give up. Moriah is the ridge where the temple would stand (2 Chronicles 3:1) and where the crucifixion would happen. Isaac carries the wood up the hill on his own back.
Commentary on Genesis 22:22 voices
(Chapter 22, Verse 2.) And God said to him: Take your beloved son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the high land, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I will tell you. It is difficult to translate the Hebrew language into Latin. Where it is now said, go to the high land, in Hebrew it has Moriah, which Aquila translated as 'the visible', that is, clear, and Symmachus, 'the vision', that is, sight.
Jerome· Hebrew Questions on Genesis, 420Patristic
Take now thy son - Bishop Warburton’s observations on this passage are weighty and important. “The order in which the words are placed in the original gradually increases the sense, and raises the passions higher and higher: Take now thy son, (rather, take I beseech thee נא na), thine only son whom thou lovest, even Isaac. Jarchi imagines this minuteness was to preclude any doubt in Abraham.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Evangelical
Stop 2 of 10
Genesis 37:28
So when the Midianite traders passed by, his brothers pulled Joseph out of the pit and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.
Genesis 37:28BSB Adds rejection to the pattern: sold for silver by his brothers, then exalted to become their savior.
Twenty pieces of silver was the going price of a slave, and the brothers who sold him do not recognize him when they stand before him in power. Joseph supplies the shape rejection takes: betrayed by his own, numbered with two prisoners (one restored and one executed), raised to a throne, and used to keep the guilty alive.
Commentary on Genesis 37:282 voices
(Verse 28) And the Ishmaelites sold Joseph for twenty silver coins. In Hebrew, silver coins are used instead of gold coins. For the Lord should not be sold for a lesser metal than Joseph.
Jerome· Hebrew Questions on Genesis, 420Patristic
For twenty pieces of silver - In the Anglo-Saxon it is thirty pence. This, I think, is the first instance on record of selling a man for a slave; but the practice certainly did not commence now, it had doubtless been in use long before. Instead of pieces, which our translators supply, the Persian has miskal, which was probably intended to signify a shekel; and if shekels be intended, taking them at three shillings each, Joseph was sold for about three pounds sterling.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Evangelical
Stop 3 of 10
Exodus 12:5
Your lamb must be an unblemished year-old male, and you may take it from the sheep or the goats.
Exodus 12:5BSB The type gains its requirement: the substitute must be without blemish, and its blood shields from death.
The lamb had to be without blemish, a male of the first year, taken into the house on the tenth day and killed on the fourteenth: four days of inspection. Jesus entered Jerusalem on the tenth of Nisan and was examined publicly for four days, and Pilate returns the required verdict: "I find in him no fault at all."
Commentary on Exodus 12:52 voices
Your lamb shall be without blemish,.... Without any spot or defect in it. Maimonides (h) reckons no less than fifty blemishes in a creature, anyone of which makes it unfit for sacrifice, see Lev 21:
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)Reformed
Without blemish - This is in accordance with the general rule (margin reference): although in this case there is a special reason, since the lamb was in place of the firstborn male in each household. The restriction to the first year is unique, and refers apparently to the condition of perfect innocence in the antitype, the Lamb of God.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)Evangelical
Stop 4 of 10
Numbers 21:9
So Moses made a bronze snake and mounted it on a pole. If anyone who was bitten looked at the bronze snake, he would live.
Numbers 21:9BSB The dying live by looking at what is lifted up: Jesus claims this picture for His cross.
Jesus applies this to Himself in John 3:14, the one Old Testament type He explicitly claims for His own cross. Paul finishes the logic: He was made sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Commentary on Numbers 21:92 voices
Many things were done in figure which were done in former times. For when he said that the fathers who were bitten by serpents in the desert could not be healed in any other way except that Moses hung up a brazen serpent, and when this was seen, those deadly bites and injurious effects of the poison were cured, he added: But these things were done in figure to instruct us (1 Corinthians 10:6).
Ambrose of Milan· Apology for the Prophet David, Chapter III, 397Patristic
That brazen serpent was hung up as a remedy for the biting serpents, not as a type of him that suffered for us but as a contrast. It saved those that looked upon it, not because they believed it to live but because it was killed, and killed with it were the powers that were subject to it, being destroyed as it deserved. And what is the fitting epitaph for it from us? "O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?" You are overthrown by the cross.
Gregory of Nazianzus· ORATION 45.22, 390Patristic
Stop 5 of 10
Joshua 1:1
Now after the death of His servant Moses, the LORD spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, saying,
Joshua 1:1BSB Moses the lawgiver dies; a leader named Yeshua, Jesus' own name, brings the people into promise.
Joshua is Yehoshua, shortened to Yeshua, the name the angel gives Mary's son. Moses the lawgiver cannot bring Israel in; his successor crosses the river and takes the land. The type is the office, not the man: the law walks you to the border, Yeshua takes you over it.
Commentary on Joshua 1:12 voices
Having finally finished with the Pentateuch of Moses, as though freed for a great advantage, we set (our) hand to Jesus son of Nave, who the Hebrews call Joshua ben Nun, that is, Joshua son of Nun, and to the book of Judges, which they call Sopthim, to Ruth also and Esther, which they extol by the same names. And I admonish the reader, that he, being careful with Scripture, might preserve the forest of Hebrew names and (their) separations divided into parts, so that our work and his effort might not be wasted.
Jerome· Prologue to Joshua, 420Patristic
Now ... - Hebrew: “and, ...” The statement following is thus connected with some previous one, which is assumed to be known to the reader. So Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, etc., are by the same means linked on to the books preceding them. The connection here is the closer, since the Book of Deuteronomy concludes, and the book of Joshua opens, by referring to the death of Moses. Moses, the servant of the Lord - On the epithet, see the marginal reference “b.” Moses’ minister - It is impossible altogether to pass by the typical application of this verse.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)Evangelical
Stop 6 of 10
Ruth 4:14
Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without a kinsman-redeemer. May his name become famous in Israel.
Ruth 4:14BSB Redemption takes a shape: a kinsman with the right to redeem, who purchases and gives rest.
The kinsman-redeemer had to meet three tests (he had to be a relative, he had to be able to pay, and he had to be willing) and Boaz meets all three, paying at the gate before ten witnesses. The nearer kinsman refuses because redeeming would damage his own inheritance. That is the exact opposite of Philippians 2.
Commentary on Ruth 4:141 voice
And the women said unto Naomi,.... The inhabitants of Bethlehem, as they fell into her company; or perhaps these were the women that were called to the labour of Ruth, and attended the birth of the child: blessed be the Lord, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman; a grandchild born to her that day. In Moab she was bereaved of her husband and of two sons; but now she is not left without a relation, a kinsman, and a redeemer, for which the women blessed God, and stirred her up to do the same.
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)Reformed
Stop 7 of 10
2 Samuel 7:12
And when your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom.
2 Samuel 7:12BSB The pattern becomes covenant: God swears David a seed whose kingdom He Himself will establish forever.
David offers to build God a house and God reverses it: He will build David one, a seed, a throne, a kingdom "for ever." The type here is a covenant rather than a character, and Gabriel quotes it back word for word to Mary in Luke 1:32–33. Six centuries with no king on the throne did not cancel it.
Commentary on 2 Samuel 7:122 voices
I will set - I will set up in thy throne, thy posterity, first Solomon, and then others successively, and at last the Messiah. So the following words may be understood, part of his posterity in general, part of Solomon, and part of Christ only, according to the different nature of the several passages.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765Evangelical
But by a special ordinance and promise of God, his successor was to be a son born after this time; and the departure from the established usage of the East in fixing the succession, can be accounted for on no other known ground, except the fulfilment of the divine promise.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
Stop 8 of 10
Jonah 1:17
Now the LORD had appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the fish.
Jonah 1:17BSB Three days and nights in the deep: the one sign Jesus gave of His death and resurrection.
"Three days and three nights" is the only sign Jesus said He would give an evil generation (Matthew 12:39–40). Jonah dies to his own mission, is swallowed, is put back on land alive, and preaches to Gentiles who repent. The pattern carries the outcome as well as the timing.
Commentary on Jonah 1:172 voices
"Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah." LXX: 'and the Lord ordered a great fish to swallow Jonah'. The Lord commanded death and the underworld to receive the prophet. To the eager jaws of death he seemed a prey: she had such joy in swallowing him, and such sadness in spitting him out. Thus happened what is written in Hosea: "I will be your death, O Death! I will be your bite, Hell!" [Hos. 13:14].
Jerome· Commentary on Jonah, Chapter 1, 420Patristic
Now the Lord had (literally “And the Lord”) prepared - Jonah (as appears from his thanksgiving) was not swallowed at once, but sank to the bottom of the sea, God preserving him in life there by miracle, as he did in the fish’s belly.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)Evangelical
Stop 9 of 10
Daniel 3:25
“Look!” he exclaimed. “I see four men, unbound and unharmed, walking around in the fire—and the fourth looks like a son of the gods!”
Daniel 3:25BSB A fourth man walks unhurt in the furnace: the type of Christ present with His own in fire.
Nebuchadnezzar counts four men in a furnace he had heated for three, and says the fourth is "like the Son of God." Nothing burns but the ropes. The type is not rescue from the fire but presence in it: a distinction the three men had already made before they were thrown in (verses 17–18).
Commentary on Daniel 3:252 voices
The Son of God - Probably he had heard David speak of him. Jesus Christ, the Angel of the covenant, did sometimes appear before his incarnation. Those who suffer for Christ, have his gracious presence with them in their sufferings, even in the fiery furnace, even in the valley of the shadow of death, and therefore need fear no evil.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765Evangelical
Ps 34:7, 8; and the probably heathen centurion's exclamation (Mt 27:54). The Chaldeans believed in families of gods: Bel, the supreme god, accompanied by the goddess Mylitta, being the father of the gods; thus the expression he meant: one sprung from and sent by the gods. Really it was the "messenger of the covenant," who herein gave a prelude to His incarnation.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
Stop 10 of 10
John 1:29
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
John 1:29BSB The shadows converge and get a name: John points at Jesus and calls Him the Lamb.
"Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." John uses the definite article twice: THE Lamb, THE sin. Every shadow on this walk (the bound son, the sold brother, the Passover, the lifted serpent, Yeshua, the redeemer, the throne, the three days, the fourth man) converges on a man walking toward him.
Commentary on John 1:292 voices
The next day - The day after the Jews made inquiry whether he was the Christ. Behold the Lamb of God - A “lamb,” among the Jews, was killed and eaten at the Passover to commemorate their deliverance from Egypt, Exo 12:3-11. A lamb was offered in the tabernacle, and afterward in the temple, every morning and evening, as a part of the daily worship, Exo 29:38-39. The Messiah was predicted as a lamb led to the slaughter, to show his patience in his sufferings, and readiness to die for man, Isa 53:
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)Evangelical
Abel knew how to divide when he offered a sacrifice from "the firstlings of his flock," teaching that the gifts of the earth, which had degenerated in the sinner, will not please God. But those in which the grace of the divine mystery shone forth will please him. And so he prophesied that we were to be redeemed from fault through the passion of the Lord, of whom it is written: "Here is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." Thus, too, he made an offering from the firstlings, that he might signify the firstborn.
Ambrose of Milan· On the Sacrament of the Incarnation of the Lord 1.4, 397Patristic
The big picture
What this walk means
Stand back from the ten stops and one thing becomes unmistakable: this is design, not coincidence. Across roughly fifteen centuries, different authors, different genres, and different circumstances keep producing the same figure: a beloved only son offered on Moriah's range, a rejected brother whose betrayal becomes his brothers' salvation, a lamb that must be without blemish, a cursed thing lifted up so that the dying live by looking, a leader bearing Jesus' own name who brings the people into the promise Moses could not, a kinsman with the right and the will to redeem, a seed of David whose kingdom God Himself establishes, three days and nights in the belly of the deep, a fourth man in the furnace so that fire does no hurt.
No single type carries the whole weight. Isaac is offered but spared; Joseph saves but dies; the Passover lamb dies but cannot rise. Each figure holds one facet and breaks under the rest, which is exactly what a shadow does. Shadows have edges but no substance.
Then the Jordan, and a man pointing: "Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29). Not a lamb for one household, as in Egypt: the Lamb, for the world. Every line of the portrait converges on Jesus of Nazareth. The Old Testament was never a different story. It was this story, told in advance.
What you now know
- A type is not a coincidence read backwards. Jesus and the apostles name these patterns themselves: the serpent (John 3:14), Jonah (Matthew 12:40), the Passover lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7).
- The shadows carry detail: the wood on Isaac's back, the price of a slave, four days of inspection, three days in the dark, a fourth man in the fire.
- The types run across every kind of writing (narrative, law, history, prophecy) and across a thousand years of authors who could not coordinate.
- They all converge on one sentence spoken at the Jordan: "Behold the Lamb of God."