April 04, 2012

Types and Antitypes

I found this is Northrup Frye's book, The Great Code, the Bible as Literature.  He might have called it the Bible as Poetry. I paid special attention to Chapter 4 Typology I and Chapter 5 Typology II.
Here are some types and antitypes:

Type: Moses delivered the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt
Antitype: Jesus delivered Christians from slavery to sin.

In Luke 9-29-31 we have:
"29 And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure,[a] which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. ( Luke 9:29-31 ESV).  Another translation reads "his Exodus which he was about to achieve at Jerusalem".


So you could also say:
Type: Exodus from Egypt
Antitype: deliverance from sin.


Almost every word of the New Testament relates (in the same sort of way) to something in the Old Testament.  The Hebrew Christians of the first century were anxious to be accepted as good Jews.

3 comments:

forrest said...

Maybe I'm happier to find someone who sees things the way I do... but there's more I can learn from someone who doesn't.

I'm a poet who was a math major. I tend to see 'metaphor' as a cognitive mechanism. Poetry is truth because metaphor is how we grasp the unfamiliar. George Lakoff explains mathematics as a mental structure constructed of tactile bodily metaphors; and that makes perfect sense to me...

So when I say the Bible is "poetry", that's the aspect of metaphor I mean. "Literature", on another hand, is just ~"something you have to study because it's pretty."

"Type" & "antitype" may be a fine way for a 1st Century Jew to say: "This is still Judaism" but to me it's like saying "x=x"-- zero information value.

For you... if I'm getting this right... Metaphor is about beauty. If you find a similarity of structure somewhere, it just appeals to you in its own right.

The precise curve of a surfer's body as he falls into the water... doesn't mean anything else. That aspect of things.

What the Emperor Concerto says about who we are and who the universe is... not an intellectual statement.

For either of us-- and for Paul-- and for Blake-- the point is still "salvation." Salvation from what? From the world as people see it, from those 'mind-forged manacles.'

Can it be done better with thoughts or feelings? Yes, I'm sure the answer is "Yes."

Left brain and right brain need to work apart from one another... and then to bring their work together. Details and generalities... the overall picture, this one particular package of dental floss that's come to be on my desk. One in the form of many.

Larry Clayton said...

Thanks for the comment, Forrest

forrest said...

Does that mean I getting some of what you've been saying? If not "grasping", then following your direction better?