The word antitype does not occur in the A.V., but the Greek word ????????? occurs in Heb 9:24, translated 'figures,' and in 1Pe 3:21, translated 'like figure.' It is that which answers to a type, as a wax impression answers to a seal: if the device is sunk, the impression will be raised, or vice versa. To take a simple but beautiful example, a lamb was offered up for a burnt offering both morning and evening under the law; and in the N.T. we read, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." It is plain that the morning and evening lamb in Israel were types and the death of the Lord Jesus was the antitype. In Heb 9:23, the 'heavenly things' are the type, and 'holy places,' Heb 9:24, the antitype, or what corresponded to the pattern. In 1Pe 3:21, eight souls were saved through water, of which baptism is the figure, or what answers to it. Doubtless there are many other antitypes in the N.T., but every antitype must have a type to which it corresponds, though the correspondence may not lie on its surface. Where scripture is silent as to types and antitypes the teaching of the Holy Spirit is needed, or grievous error may result in associating two things together which have no spiritual connection, though names and words may seem to correspond.

ANTITYPE, that which answers to a type or figure. A type is a model, mould, or pattern; that which is formed according to it is an antitype. See TYPE.