Antitype

(Greek antitypos) — in typological language, the New Testament reality an Old Testament “type” supposedly points to. The term runs backwards. Antitypos in Hebrews 9:24 means “a copy of the true” — so the scheme ends up calling the reality the copy. The picture confirms it: a piece of type is the raised, solid substance that presses out the flat print. Christ is the substance — the body that casts the shadow (Col 2:17) — yet the doctrine labels Him the antitype (the copy) and the shadow the type (the substance). Inverted top to bottom. Better to set the scheme aside: Israel is an example, Christ the substance it was shaped by.

See also: Example, Shadow