Typology

The reading of Old Testament events as types (prefigurations) of New Testament realities.

Typology (from typos, type, figure) is the hermeneutical method by which Old Testament events, persons, and institutions are read as types — prefigurations — of New Testament realities. Moses is a type of Christ; the Passover is a type of Pascha; the Temple is a type of the Church; the high priest is a type of Christ's priesthood. This is not arbitrary allegory but a reading of history as theologically ordered: God prepared in the Old Testament the forms that would be filled with their definitive content in Christ.