Topical Study
Types of Christ in the Old Testament
Shadows of the Substance to Come
Scattered through the pages of the Old Testament are people, objects, and events that do more than tell their own story — they also function as living pictures, sketched centuries in advance, of someone greater who was still to come. Theologians call this pattern typology. A "type" is a real historical person, object, or event that God sovereignly wove into Israel's history to prefigure a greater New Testament reality — its "antitype." Unlike predictive prophecy, which speaks in words about the future, a type speaks through pattern: a lamb slain at Passover, a priest-king who appears without introduction, a bronze snake lifted on a pole. None of these figures understood themselves to be making a verbal prediction. Yet looking back from the other side of the cross and the empty tomb, the New Testament writers saw in each of them a shadow sketched by the same hand that would one day paint the substance.
This way of reading the Old Testament is not a clever invention of later interpreters — it is how Jesus himself read it. On the road to Emmaus, "beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:27). Paul tells the Corinthians that the events of Israel's wilderness years "happened to them as an example, but were written down for our instruction" (1 Corinthians 10:11) — the Greek word behind "example" is tupos, the very word "type" comes from. Writing to the Colossians, Paul says the old covenant's festivals, new moons, and Sabbaths were "a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ" (Colossians 2:17). Hebrews makes the same point about the sacrificial law: it holds "but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities" (Hebrews 10:1). Shadow and substance, sketch and fulfillment — this is the Bible's own vocabulary for how its two halves fit together.
Reading for types calls for real care. Sound typology stays anchored to patterns the New Testament itself names, or to connections so clearly drawn by explicit apostolic teaching that they carry the same weight — Paul does not leave readers guessing whether the Passover lamb points to Christ; he says it outright: "Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed" (1 Corinthians 5:7). That is different from speculative allegorizing, which hunts for hidden meaning in every incidental detail of a story — the number of steps to an altar, the color of a garment — with no textual warrant at all. The thirteen types below are each ones Scripture itself identifies by name, directly cites, or so strongly implies through its own language that the connection is not in doubt. Held with that discipline, and with humility about where plain warrant ends, typology does not distort the Old Testament's own meaning in its own setting — it uncovers a second, deeper layer placed there on purpose by the one divine author of both Testaments.
This study is a close cousin of this site's Prophecy & Fulfillment page, but the two cover different ground. That page traces direct, verbal predictions — specific words spoken by name through the prophets about events still future to them, later fulfilled in detail. This page traces typology: real people, objects, and events whose shape and story were patterned by God to prefigure Christ, without anyone necessarily speaking a prediction in the moment. Scripture treats both as genuine, complementary ways the Old Testament points forward to Jesus — one through word, the other through pattern.
The Passover Lamb
The Old Testament Picture
On the night of Israel's deliverance from Egypt, God instructed every household to select a lamb without blemish, a male a year old, and keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, when it was slaughtered at twilight. Its blood was painted on the doorframes, and wherever that blood marked the house, the angel of death passed over — the firstborn inside was spared while judgment fell everywhere else. The lamb was then roasted and eaten in haste, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, by a people dressed and ready to leave slavery behind that very night. God was explicit that none of its bones were to be broken (Exodus 12:46).
The Passover became Israel's defining memory — the night salvation came not by their own strength but by substitutionary blood, applied in faith, standing between a condemned household and a holy God's judgment.
How It Points to Christ
John the Baptist greets Jesus with language drawn straight from this scene: "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29). Paul makes the identification explicit rather than leaving it to inference: "Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed" (1 Corinthians 5:7). John's Gospel even notes that none of Jesus's bones were broken at the crucifixion, explicitly tying that detail to Exodus 12's lamb (John 19:36). As the lamb's blood once turned aside judgment for a household in Egypt, Christ's blood turns aside judgment for everyone who trusts in him.
Videos
Key Verses
- Exodus 12:5 — "Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old." The lamb had to be perfect, foreshadowing the sinless Lamb of God.
- Exodus 12:13 — "When I see the blood, I will pass over you." Blood applied in faith turned aside judgment.
- John 1:29 — "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"
- 1 Corinthians 5:7 — "Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed."
- John 19:36 — "Not one of his bones will be broken" — fulfilling the Passover lamb's own instructions.
Melchizedek
The Old Testament Picture
After Abram rescues his nephew Lot from a coalition of kings, he is met by Melchizedek, king of Salem and "priest of God Most High," who brings out bread and wine and blesses Abram in God's name. Abram, in turn, gives him a tenth of everything. Melchizedek appears in only three verses (Genesis 14:18-20) and then vanishes from the narrative entirely — no genealogy, no account of his birth or death, no tribe. He simply appears, blesses the father of Israel, and is gone.
Centuries later, Psalm 110 picks him back up: God swears to David's greater son, "You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek" (Psalm 110:4) — a king who is also a priest, something the Mosaic law, which carefully separated kingship from priesthood, never allowed.
How It Points to Christ
Hebrews 7 builds an extended argument directly from Melchizedek's unusual, unexplained appearance. Because Genesis records no beginning or end to his life or priesthood, he is made to "resemble the Son of God" and "continues a priest forever" (Hebrews 7:3). His priesthood existed before Levi was even born, showing that a greater priesthood than Levi's was always God's plan — one fulfilled in Jesus, who holds his priesthood permanently, "since he continues forever" (Hebrews 7:17, 24). Like Melchizedek, Christ is both king and priest at once.
Videos
Key Verses
- Genesis 14:18-20 — Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High, blesses Abram and receives a tithe from him.
- Psalm 110:4 — "You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek."
- Hebrews 7:3 — "Without father or mother or genealogy... he continues a priest forever."
- Hebrews 7:17 — "You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek."
- Hebrews 7:24 — "He holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever."
Isaac on Mount Moriah
The Old Testament Picture
God tests Abraham with words almost too painful to read: "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering" (Genesis 22:2). Father and son journey three days to the mountain; Isaac himself carries the wood for his own sacrifice. When Isaac asks where the lamb is, Abraham answers in faith, "God will provide for himself the lamb" (Genesis 22:8). At the last moment, the angel of the Lord stops Abraham's hand, and a ram caught in a thicket is offered in Isaac's place. Abraham names the place "The LORD will provide."
How It Points to Christ
Hebrews 11:17-19 explains Abraham's faith in striking terms: he reasoned that God was able to raise Isaac even from the dead, "from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back" — the near-sacrifice and return of the beloved, only son functions as a picture of death and resurrection. The language of Genesis 22:2 — "your son, your only son, whom you love" — is echoed almost word for word in John 3:16, where God himself does not spare his own beloved Son but gives him up. Where a ram was substituted for Isaac, no substitute was found for Jesus; he was himself the substitute, the Lamb God provided once and for all.
Videos
Key Verses
- Genesis 22:2 — "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love... offer him."
- Genesis 22:8 — "God will provide for himself the lamb."
- Genesis 22:13-14 — A ram is offered in Isaac's place; the place is named "The LORD will provide."
- Hebrews 11:17-19 — Abraham reasoned God could raise Isaac from the dead, and figuratively did receive him back.
- John 3:16 — "God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son."
Joseph
The Old Testament Picture
Joseph is his father's beloved son, hated and envied by his own brothers, who strip him, throw him in a pit, and sell him into slavery for silver. In Egypt he is falsely accused and imprisoned though innocent, yet the Lord is with him through it all. In God's timing he is lifted from the prison to the right hand of Pharaoh, given authority over all Egypt, and uses that position to save Egypt and the surrounding nations — including the very brothers who betrayed him — from a devastating famine.
When his brothers finally stand before him in terror, Joseph does not take revenge. He weeps, forgives them freely, and explains the whole ordeal with words that have echoed through the church ever since: "you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive" (Genesis 50:20).
How It Points to Christ
Scripture never labels Joseph a "type" with that exact word, but the shape of his story — the beloved son rejected by his own, suffering unjustly though innocent, exalted to the highest place, becoming the means of salvation for many, and freely forgiving those who wronged him — so closely patterns the gospel that the church has long recognized it as one of the clearest pictures of Christ in the Old Testament. Stephen's sermon in Acts retells Joseph's story as part of the same larger pattern of rejection and vindication that culminates in Jesus: "the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him" (Acts 7:9-10). Joseph's own explanation in Genesis 50:20 — evil intended, God meaning it for good, many kept alive — is the same redemptive logic Peter applies directly to the cross in Acts 2:23 and 4:27-28.
Videos
Key Verses
- Genesis 37:28 — Joseph's own brothers sell him for silver.
- Genesis 41:41 — Joseph is exalted: "I have set you over all the land of Egypt."
- Genesis 45:5 — "God sent me before you to preserve life."
- Genesis 50:20 — "You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good."
- Acts 7:9-10 — Stephen retells Joseph's rejection and vindication as part of God's larger redemptive pattern.
Moses the Deliverer and Prophet
The Old Testament Picture
God raises up Moses to confront Pharaoh and lead Israel out of four hundred years of slavery, mediating the covenant at Sinai and speaking with the Lord "face to face, as a man speaks to his friend" (Exodus 33:11). Near the end of his life, Moses himself points beyond his own ministry: "The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers — it is to him you shall listen" (Deuteronomy 18:15). Moses, Israel's greatest deliverer and lawgiver, explicitly tells Israel to watch for someone still greater to come.
How It Points to Christ
Peter quotes Deuteronomy 18:15 directly in his sermon at Solomon's Portico and applies it to Jesus by name (Acts 3:22), as Stephen also does before the Sanhedrin (Acts 7:37). Hebrews draws out the comparison further: Moses was faithful "as a servant" in God's house, but Christ is faithful "as a son" over God's house — worthy of more glory than Moses, as a builder is worthy of more honor than the house itself (Hebrews 3:2-6). As Moses delivered Israel from bondage in Egypt, Christ delivers all who trust him from bondage to sin.
Videos
Key Verses
- Exodus 3:10 — God sends Moses to deliver Israel from Egypt.
- Deuteronomy 18:15 — "The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me."
- Acts 3:22 — Peter applies Moses's prophecy directly to Jesus.
- Acts 7:37 — Stephen repeats the same prophecy before the Sanhedrin.
- Hebrews 3:5-6 — Moses was faithful as a servant; Christ is faithful as a son over God's house.
The Bronze Serpent
The Old Testament Picture
When Israel grows impatient and speaks against God and Moses in the wilderness, the Lord sends venomous serpents among the people, and many die. The people confess their sin and ask Moses to intercede. God's remedy is strange: Moses is told to make a bronze serpent and set it on a pole, "and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live" (Numbers 21:8-9). Healing comes not through a cure applied to the wound, but through simply looking, in trust, at the very thing God provided.
How It Points to Christ
Jesus himself draws this connection, in his own words, to Nicodemus: "as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life" (John 3:14-15). The serpent, an image of the judgment the people had earned, was lifted up so that looking to it in faith brought life. In the same way, Christ was lifted up on the cross, bearing the judgment sin deserved, so that all who look to him in faith are saved — "and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself" (John 12:32).
Videos
Key Verses
- Numbers 21:8-9 — "Everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live."
- John 3:14-15 — "As Moses lifted up the serpent... so must the Son of Man be lifted up."
- John 12:32 — "When I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself."
The Manna
The Old Testament Picture
In the wilderness, with no way to grow or buy food, God rains bread from heaven. Each morning a fine, flake-like substance covers the ground; the people call it manna and gather just enough for that day — any extra kept overnight breeds worms and stinks, except on the day before the Sabbath. For forty years this daily bread from heaven sustains the entire nation, a constant, repeated lesson that life depends on God's provision, given fresh each day, not stored up and controlled.
How It Points to Christ
In John 6, after feeding the five thousand, the crowd presses Jesus about manna — "our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness." Jesus answers by redirecting their attention from the gift to the giver: "it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven" (John 6:32), and then identifies himself as that bread outright: "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger" (John 6:35), "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever" (John 6:51). Manna kept Israel's bodies alive for a day at a time; Christ gives life that never ends.
Videos
Key Verses
- Exodus 16:4 — "I am about to rain bread from heaven for you."
- Exodus 16:15 — "It is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat."
- John 6:32-33 — "My Father gives you the true bread from heaven."
- John 6:35 — "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger."
- John 6:51 — "I am the living bread that came down from heaven."
The Rock at Horeb
The Old Testament Picture
Camped at Rephidim with no water, the people quarrel with Moses, certain they will die of thirst. God tells Moses to take his staff and strike the rock at Horeb before the elders of Israel: "water shall come out of it, and the people will drink" (Exodus 17:6). Moses obeys, and the rock supplies water for the whole camp in the middle of a dry and barren wilderness.
How It Points to Christ
Paul makes the typological link explicit rather than leaving it implied: recounting Israel's wilderness years to the Corinthians, he writes that the people "drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ" (1 Corinthians 10:4). As the struck rock poured out life-giving water in the desert, Christ — struck for sinners — pours out living water for all who thirst, an image Jesus takes up himself when he cries out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink" (John 7:37-38).
Videos
Key Verses
- Exodus 17:6 — "You shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it."
- 1 Corinthians 10:4 — "They drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ."
- John 7:37-38 — "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink."
The Scapegoat and Day of Atonement
The Old Testament Picture
Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest took two goats for the sins of the people. One was sacrificed as a sin offering, its blood carried into the Most Holy Place to make atonement for the sanctuary itself. The high priest then laid both hands on the head of the second goat, confessed over it "all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins," and sent it away into the wilderness, carrying those sins far from the camp (Leviticus 16:21-22).
How It Points to Christ
Hebrews 9 draws the comparison directly: unlike the high priest, who entered the earthly Holy Place year after year with the blood of goats and calves, Christ entered "once for all" into the true, heavenly sanctuary "by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption" (Hebrews 9:12), his blood able to "purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God" (Hebrews 9:14). Hebrews later adds that Christ "was offered once to bear the sins of many" (Hebrews 9:28) — language that echoes the scapegoat's role of carrying sin away. Together the two goats of Leviticus 16 picture what Christ alone accomplished: atonement made, and sin carried away for good.
Videos
Key Verses
- Leviticus 16:21-22 — The goat bears away "all their iniquities... to a remote area."
- Leviticus 16:30 — "On this day shall atonement be made for you, to cleanse you."
- Hebrews 9:12 — Christ entered "once for all... securing an eternal redemption."
- Hebrews 9:14 — His blood "purifies our conscience from dead works."
- Hebrews 9:28 — "Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many."
The Tabernacle
The Old Testament Picture
At Sinai, God gives Moses exact instructions for a portable sanctuary: "let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst" (Exodus 25:8). Built to a pattern shown to Moses on the mountain, the tabernacle was divided into an outer courtyard, the Holy Place, and the innermost Most Holy Place, where the ark of the covenant rested beneath the mercy seat. Here, among a sinful and often unfaithful people, the holy God chose to pitch his tent and dwell.
How It Points to Christ
John describes the incarnation in language drawn straight from the tabernacle: "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14) — the Greek verb behind "dwelt" is literally "tabernacled." In Jesus, God once again pitched his tent among his people, this time in a human body. Hebrews 9 explains that the earthly tabernacle was only "a copy and shadow of the heavenly things" (Hebrews 9:1-12), while Christ entered "once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood," into "heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf" (Hebrews 9:24).
Videos
Key Verses
- Exodus 25:8 — "Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst."
- John 1:14 — "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us."
- Hebrews 9:11-12 — Christ entered the greater, more perfect tent, securing eternal redemption.
- Hebrews 9:24 — Christ entered "heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf."
Jonah
The Old Testament Picture
Called by God to preach repentance to Nineveh, Jonah instead flees in the opposite direction. A storm overtakes his ship, and at his own insistence he is thrown into the sea, where "the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah" (Jonah 1:17). Jonah spends three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, prays from that place of utter helplessness, and is delivered back onto dry land — after which he finally goes to Nineveh, and the whole city repents at his preaching.
How It Points to Christ
Jesus himself supplies this typological reading when religious leaders demand a miraculous sign: "For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" (Matthew 12:39-40). He goes further still, declaring "something greater than Jonah is here" (Matthew 12:41) — Jonah's three days in the fish and return to life becomes, by Christ's own explanation, a sign pointing to his own death, burial, and resurrection.
Videos
Key Verses
- Jonah 1:17 — "The LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah."
- Jonah 2:1-2 — Jonah prays to the Lord from inside the fish.
- Matthew 12:39-40 — "As Jonah was three days and three nights... so will the Son of Man be."
- Matthew 12:41 — "Something greater than Jonah is here."
David the Shepherd-King
The Old Testament Picture
Of all Jesse's sons, the youngest, David, is left in the field tending sheep when Samuel comes to anoint Israel's next king. God tells Samuel to look past outward appearance, "for the LORD looks on the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7), and David the shepherd boy is anointed king on the spot. Centuries later, after David's dynasty has long fallen, Ezekiel still looks forward to a shepherd-king still to come: "I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them... and I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them" (Ezekiel 34:23-24) — written generations after the historical David had died, itself pointing beyond him to a greater David.
How It Points to Christ
Jesus identifies himself in exactly this shepherd-king language: "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep" (John 10:11). The angel's announcement to Mary ties Jesus directly to David's throne: he will be given "the throne of his father David," and "he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end" (Luke 1:32-33) — the everlasting kingdom promised to David finding its fulfillment not in another earthly king but in great David's greater Son.
Videos
Key Verses
- 1 Samuel 16:11-13 — David the shepherd boy is anointed king.
- Ezekiel 34:23-24 — "I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David."
- Luke 1:32-33 — Jesus given "the throne of his father David," his kingdom without end.
- John 10:11 — "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."
The Cities of Refuge
The Old Testament Picture
God sets apart six cities across Israel where a person who killed another by accident, without intent or hatred, could flee from the avenger of blood and find safety while the case was judged (Numbers 35:9-28). If the death was ruled unintentional, the one who fled was protected there permanently — but only until the death of the high priest then serving, at which point he was free to return home, the need for refuge over.
How It Points to Christ
Hebrews takes up this very picture of flight to safety and applies it to faith in Christ: God's promise and oath are given "so that by two unchangeable things... we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us" (Hebrews 6:18). As the cities of refuge offered real, physical safety to those who fled to them in time, Christ offers real safety to all who flee to him — and where the refuge-seeker's freedom once depended on the death of the high priest, believers are set permanently free through the death of their great High Priest himself.
Videos
Key Verses
- Numbers 35:11-12 — Cities set apart "that the manslayer who kills any person without intent may flee there."
- Numbers 35:25 — The refuge-seeker remains safe "until the death of the high priest."
- Numbers 35:28 — After the high priest's death, he is free to return home.
- Hebrews 6:18 — "We who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us."
Videos
These videos look at typology as a whole — the larger practice of reading Christ throughout the Old Testament — rather than any single type covered above. See each type's own section for videos specific to it.
Articles
- GotQuestions.org: gotquestions.org What a "type" of Christ is, and the main types found across the Old Testament.
- GotQuestions.org: gotquestions.org A plain introduction to biblical typology and how to handle it responsibly.
- GotQuestions.org: gotquestions.org How Jesus appears throughout the Old Testament, in type, prophecy and appearance.
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