Though
many are inclined to look with disfavor on any attempt at
setting forth the Scripture types and their meaning
because of the extravagances of some interpreters of the
past, yet the fact remains that these types occupy a
considerable place in God's Word and certainly were placed
there for our instruction. In these are foreshadowed the
grandest truths that ever entered into man's mind.
An endeavor is made in the following pages to describe
the types sufficiently to give a proper basis for showing
their antitypical meaning. The aim is to present these
Biblical types and their meaning in a practical manner so
that the average reader will be able to understand them.
This work does not profess to be exhaustive. Its brevity
excludes a detailed description of all the types with the
various technical points related to them. Neither is it
possible in the narrow limits of this volume to give a
lengthy discussion of the various Christian truths
typified. It is assumed that the reader is not entirely
unacquainted with the Bible.
But though the first aim is a popular treatment of
typology, yet the subject is presented systematically and
with a degree of fulness and reference that will, it is
hoped, make it of value to the student of typology as a
textbook. Less interest in Scripture types has been
manifested in recent years than formerly, probably partly
because of the influence of the modern religious
liberalism that denies Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch
and the prophetic element of the Scripture. But every
devout heart who gives careful thought to these
"shadows of good things" cannot fail to be
strongly convicted of the fact that there is One who sees
the end from the beginning and who in giving these
adumbrations of glorious Christian truth proved once for
all the existence of God, the divinity of Christ, and the
divine origin of the Bible and of the religion it sets
forth.
I have derived assistance from a number of writers on
this subject, also from various commentaries and religious
encyclopedias. Of the former I acknowledge special
indebtedness to Fairbairn's great classic on the
"Typology of Scriptures," also to Dr.
Moorehead's "Mosaic Institutions," though I have
often felt obliged to vary widely from their
interpretations of types. I especially desire to
acknowledge the gracious assistance of the Spirit of God,
whose illuminating influence I have very definitely
recognized several times while writing when under his
divine enlightenment new beauties shone forth that I had
never before recognized. I sincerely trust that the same
blessed Spirit will make the perusal of these pages
profitable to the reader.
Russell R. Byrum
