Lesson# 4 Prefiguring & Typology

Crayon & pencil drawing by Sr. Grace Remington, OCSO.
Copyright 2005, Sisters of the Mississippi Abbey
http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/mary-consoles-eve

I understand from my self- study that the New Testament is the fulfillment of  the Old Testament. And much of what we find in New Testament has already been prefigured in the Old Testament. The method by which such Biblical interpretation is made is termed "typology"! The initial one - one found in OT is called the "type" and the fulfillment is called the "antitype". It could be a person, thing or event; often it is Messianic, and related to the idea of salvation.
       Let me take Mary as the fulfillment of the types in OT. Basically, as I understand it, there are three types of Mary prefigured in OT. 1. Eve 2. Ark of the Covenant and 3. The Queen Mother. Today I will limit my study to the typology of Eve.
The traditional Eve-Mary typology consists of death through Eve, Life through Mary, Mary's Obedience unties the knot of Eve's disobedience etc.
Mary, untier of knots is the name both of a Marian devotion and a Baroque painting  representing that devotion. Wikipedia
But a greater one than that is the fact that Eve is the mother of all living and our mother in the order of nature, and Mary the mother of all living and our Mother in order of Grace.

St.Irenaeus declared, " What the virgin Eve had bound fast through unbelief, this did the Virgin Mary set free through faith."

Genesis 3:15, the proto-evangelium is the Christological text because it prophetically foreshadows Christ, the Redeemer. And the promise is about a new team of Man and Woman, a Mother and a Son! 
And thus Eve becomes the type and Mary becomes the antitype, the fulfillment of the promise. 
  That's all for today.