1,352
edits
Changes
→Distinction between Typology and Allegory
==Distinction between Typology and Allegory==
Typology stresses the connection between actual persons, events, places and institutions of the Old Testament, and their corresponding reality in the New Testament which they foreshadowed.<ref>Fr. John Breck, ''Scripture in Tradition: The Bible and it Interpretation in the Orthodox Church'' (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir Seminary Press, 2001) p.22f.</ref> Moses the Lawgiver foreshadows Christ, the ultimate Lawgiver. Aaron, the High priest, foreshadows Christ, the ultimate High Priest. Manna, which fed the people in the wilderness foreshadows the Christ the Heavenly Bread (the Eucharist), which provides ultimate spiritual nourishment. Allegory, on the other hand, finds hidden or symbolic meaning in the Old Testament, which is inherent in text and does not depend on a future historical fulfillment, for example 1st Corinthians 9:8-10 sees the law forbidding the muzzling of an ox while it treads the corn as having the hidden meaning that a minister of the Gospel should be supported by the people he ministers to. It The Song of Solomon is also often interpreted as an allegory of God (the Lover), and His love for His people (the beloved). The allegorical approach also often sees multiple correspondences in a given narrative which illustrate some point. For example, St. Paul explicitly uses allegory in Galatians 4, in which he sees the child of the slave woman (Hagar) as representing those under the Law, while the child of the free woman (Sarah) as representing those under the New Covenant, and the casting out of Hagar and Ishmael as representing the inferiority of the Old Covenant to the New (Galatians 4:21-31).
==Sources==