The three parts show that the Jubilee in Israel, the 50th year with full freedom slaves and all humans, and a full restoration of the land, is a type of the thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ. The three passages Acts 3:19-21, 1 Peter 1:9-11, and Romans 8:21 have words expressing the characteristics of the Jubilee.
The 70 weeks in Daniel 9:24-27 show the appointed times to the coming of the Messiah to the earth. The seven appointed times in Daniel 4:16 express the appointed times of the nations until the second presence of Jesus Christ in the year 1914. The passages of Acts 3:19 and 1 Timothy 6:15, and Ephesians 1:10 show that there also are appointed times ending when the thousand-year reign of Jesus begins.
The articles argue that the last 1,000 years of Jehovah’s 7,000 years day of rest are identical with the thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ. Thus, the appointed times leading to the thousand-year reign are the 6,000 years when God rested after his creation.
We do not know the day and hour for the end of these 6,000 years, but we know in which generation these years end. In connection with this generation, the years 1914 and 1975 are of particular importance. A generation has an approximate length but not a definite length. The importance of the year 1975 is that it significantly restricts the length of the generation that should not pass away before the thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ starts.
Part I discusses the application of types and antitypes in the Bible.
Part II discusses the details of the types and antitypes related to the Great Jubilee.
Part III discusses the chronology related to the Great Jubilee.
INTRODUCTION
The arrangement with the 7 times 7 sabbath years and the 50th Jubilee year in Israel is a unique arrangement. I am not aware of any other nation in the ancient world that had a similar arrangement. The uniqueness of this account alone suggests that it is not included in the Law of Moses only for the benefit of the Israelites. But it must have a more universal application. And this is exactly what Paul shows in Colossians 2:16, 17:
16 Therefore, do not let anyone judge you about what you eat and drink or about the observance of a festival or of the new moon or of a sabbath (sabaton). 17 Those things are a shadow of the things to come, but the reality belongs to the Christ.
We note that “festival” and “new moon” are singular. There were several festivals, and by not using the Greek article, the reference must be to any festival. There was only one new moon festival each month, but there were different sabbats: the weekly sabbath, the sabbath year, and the Jubilee. The Greek word sabbaton is plural, and this shows that any sabbath is a prophetic type. Because of Paul’s words, we must conclude that each of the sabbats of the Jubilee cycle and the Jubilee that is a sabbath year as well serve as prophetic types.
YOUR WORD IS TRUTH
Jesus argued with a group of Jews, and after he had quoted Psalm 82:6, he said, according to John 10:35, “and yet the scripture (grafē) cannot be nullified.” The Greek word grafē (“scripture”) is singular, and it refers to the passage that Jesus quoted. According to Matthew 21:42, Jesus said: “Did you never read in the Scriptures?” These words indicate that in the time of Jesus, the Jews adhered to a set of scriptures regarded as the authoritative word of God.
After his resurrection, Jesus met some of his disciples, and in his conversation with them, he said, according to Luke 24:44, 45:
44 He then said to them: “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was yet with you, that all the things written about me in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened up their minds fully to grasp the meaning of the Scriptures.
The words of Jesus show that “the Scriptures” that the Jews believed in consisted of the same three parts as the Hebrew Scriptures today consist of, and this again suggests that the same 39 books that the Hebrew Scriptures consist of today, were accepted as the inspired Scriptures of God by the Jews in the days of Jesus. Regarding these scriptures, Jesus said according to John 17:17
17 Sanctify them by means of the truth; your word is truth.
The word alētheia has the meaning “truth; truthfulness; reality.” (United Bible Society (UBS) Lexicon) When Jesus used the phrase “God’s word,” he must have referred to any word from God, spoken or written. And the word alētheia in this context must include both truth opposed to lying, truthfulness, and reality. I will now study how the noun alētheia is used in connection with Jesus.
THE WORD “TRUTH” (alētheia) USED AS A SYNONYM OF “ANTITYPE”
Often the noun “truth” (alētheia) is used as a contrast to a lie. But in John 1:17, there is a special contrast:
17 Because the Law was given through Moses, the undeserved kindness and the truth came to be through Jesus Christ.
The contrast here is between the law of Moses and “the truth” (alētheia). In July 1965, there was an international assembly in Oslo, and I still remember the talk of N.H. Knorr entitled “Answering the Roman Governor’s question, ‘What is truth.’” One reason why I remember this talk was that Knorr discussed John 1:17, and for the first time I learned that “truth” could be used in the sense of “antitype.” This was an aha experience for me.[1]
I remember that Knorr asked: “Was not the Law of Moses the truth?” Then he showed that the contrast was not between what was a lie and what was the truth. But the word “truth” in John 1:17 has the meaning of “reality.” The law was the type and Jesus was the antitype, the reality. I quote from page 649 of The Watchtower of November 1, 1965:
16 Thus there was much more to the Law given through Moses than merely commandments to point out what sin was and to tell the Jews what was the pure, right, holy and unselfish thing to do, to keep them walking in harmony with God. Besides that, the Law commanded certain meaningful ceremonies to be carried out regularly in order to draw prophetic outlines that give a true picture of grand things to come according to God’s purpose. The inspired writer calls these prophetic outlines ‘shadows,’ saying: “There being men who offer the gifts according to the Law, but which men are rendering sacred service in a typical representation and a shadow of the heavenly things; just as Moses, when about to make the tent in completion, was given the divine command: For says he: ‘See that you make all things after their pattern that was shown to you in the mountain [of Sinai].’”—Heb. 8:4, 5…
18 Many other things that were commanded in the Law, such as the passover supper, the festival of weeks or Pentecost, the weekly sabbath day, the Jubilee year, the festival first day of each month or new moon, particularly the seventh new moon of each year, all these were ‘shadows.’ They were true in themselves, giving a true outline or small picture of greater things to come. However, they were only ‘shadows.’ A shadow is a dark image or design that is cast upon some surface by some solid, untransparent substance that gets in the way of the light. The shadow is not substantial; it is not the real thing. The substance or body that the shadow outlines or images is the real thing. If the substance or body is in front of the light, then its shadow extends ahead of the substance or body. For that reason it is a common saying: “Coming events cast their shadows before them.” In God’s purpose, the shadow came first, to give a small-scale idea of the grand things that he had in mind for the future of mankind. Those shadows aroused true expectations in people who obediently kept God’s law. Because the ‘shadows’ were true, these people would not be disappointed in their expectations.
The Watchtower of September 15, 1991, page 12, also used “the truth” in the sense “reality” or “antitype. We read:
He lived a life of devoted service to Jehovah and fulfilled the many prophecies foretelling the Messiah. Jesus thus made the truth about the promised Seed clearer and put the things foreshadowed by the Mosaic Law into the realm of reality. (Colossians 2:16, 17) It could therefore be said that “the truth came to be through Jesus Christ.”—John 1:17.
A great part of the prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures function as shadows pointing to Jesus, as Revelation 19:10 says:
10 For the witness concerning Jesus is what inspires prophecy.”
The words of John show that generally speaking, the prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures were inspired in order to be fulfilled in connection with Jesus. Confirming this are the words of Jesus when he became visible to some disciples after his resurrection. We read in Luke 24:27:
27 And starting with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them things pertaining to himself in all the Scriptures.
A significant portion of the law addresses the actions of the priesthood and the sacrifices that were required. And all these points to Jesus as the antitypical High Priest and to his ransom sacrifice. This is the very key to the purpose of God, and a great part of the Christian Greek Scriptures discusses these antitypes.
However, we must not forget that the prophecies also indicate that Jesus would be king and how his kingship would bring blessings to humanity. We read in Colossians 2:16, 17:
16 Therefore, do not let anyone judge you about what you eat and drink or about the observance of a festival or of the new moon or of a sabbath. 17 Those things are a shadow of the things to come, but the reality belongs to the Christ.
The things mentioned by Paul were shadows or types, and the body or reality that cast the shadow would be related to Christ. As I will show, these types did not relate to the ransom sacrifice, but the antitypes are related to the Kingdom of God and the function of Jesus as king.
[1]. The article was printed in The Watchtower of November 1, 1965, pages 645-658. I recommend this article.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PROPHETIC TYPES AND ANTITYPES
When we are trying to understand prophetic types, we may be tempted to use our imagination and interpret the types in the way we think the meaning is. Because of this, there are many different competing interpretations of the same Bible texts. To gain insight into the situation from God’s perspective, we must carefully examine how the inspired writers of the Christian Greek Scriptures treated the prophetic types found in the Hebrew Scriptures.
HOW THE CHRISTIAN GREEK SCRIPTURES TREAT PROPHETIC TYPES
The primary issue we need to explore is whether each of the basic parts of a prophetic type refers to a concrete antitype or whether we should understand a prophetic type in the same manner as we understand an illustration. An illustration consists of several basic parts. But these do not have a concrete meaning in themselves; they are there to keep the illustration together as a whole. Together, these basic parts illustrate an important principle or procedure that the listeners should keep in mind or follow.
The words in Hebrews 8:5 may illustrate this question:
5 These men are offering sacred service in a typical representation (hypodeigma) and a shadow (skia) of the heavenly things; just as Moses, when about to construct the tent, was given the divine command: For He says: “See that you make all things after their pattern (typos) that was shown to you in the mountain.”
These words show that the Tabernacle was a typical representation of heavenly things. Were the words “a typical representation” used as an illustration? Were they used to show that we who live on the earth must worship Jehovah in his Tabernacle, just as his heavenly sons worship him in heaven? Or should the existence of the Tabernacle where the priests offered sacrifices to Jehovah every day remind the Israelites that they should also worship Jehovah privately in their homes?
The Tabernacle did not serve as a general reminder to the Israelites. The Tabernacle had to be constructed exactly after the pattern that Moses was shown when he spoke with Jehovah’s angel on the mountain. This means that of the basic parts of the Tabernacle, each one had a concrete antitypical application. I will discuss some examples:
The priests made their service in the Holy compartment of the Tabernacle. But the High Priest entered the Most Holy one time a year, on the Day of Atonement. What are the antitypes? We read Hebrews 9:11, 12, 24:
11 However, when Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have already taken place, he passed through the greater and more perfect tent not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. 12 He entered into the holy place, not with the blood of goats and of young bulls, but with his own blood, once for all time, and obtained an everlasting deliverance for us…24 For Christ did not enter into a holy place made with hands, which is a copy (antitypos) of the reality (alethinos), but into heaven itself, so that he now appears before God on our behalf.
The quotation shows that the Most Holy in the Tabernacle was a type of heaven. In Hebrews 10:19-22, there is a further identification:
19 Therefore, brothers, since we have boldness for the way of entry into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 20 which he opened up for us as a new and living way through the curtain, that is, his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us approach with sincere hearts and complete faith, having had our hearts sprinkled clean from a wicked conscience and our bodies bathed with clean water.
How could the curtain between the Holy and the Most Holy picture the flesh of Jesus? First Corinthians 15:50 says that “flesh and blood cannot inherit God’s Kingdom.” The fleshly body of Jesus prevented him from ascending to heaven. However, 10:10 says:
10 By this “will” we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time.
Jesus as the High Priest could not enter the Most Holy, which is heaven, with his fleshly body, just as the curtain prevented the High Priest from entering the Most Holy. When Jesus offered his body, the curtain, which symbolized his body, was taken away, so to speak. Jesus was raised as a spirit, according to 1 Corinthians 15:45. And now he could enter heaven.
In Israel, the priests served at the temple and offered sacrifices to Jehovah. Who were the antitype of the priests? Paul uses the pronouns “we” and “us,” and verse 22 says that “our bodies bathed with clean water.” This was a requirement of the priests before they entered the Holy compartment. But to whom does the word “we” refer? We read Hebrews 3:1:
1 Consequently, holy brothers, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest whom we acknowledge—Jesus.
Those who are mentioned in this verse are both the children and brothers of Jesus, as 2:11-13 says. They look to Jesus as their High Priest, and that they have the “heavenly calling” identifies them as priests. To show this, I again quote Hebrews 10:19, 20:
19 Therefore, brothers, since we have boldness for the way of entry into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 20 which he opened up for us as a new and living way through the curtain, that is, his flesh.
The priests could enter to Holy compartment, but not the Most Holy compartment. However, because of the new situation with the ransom sacrifice, Paul points to an expansion of the type, which was implied by what happened when Jesus died. We read Matthew 27:51:
51 And look! the curtain of the sanctuary was torn in two, from top to bottom, and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split.
The curtain had prevented the priests in Israel, who entered the Holy, from entering the Most Holy. But now this curtain, symbolized by the body of Jesus, was torn in two. Verse 20 in chapter 10, which is quoted above, shows that contrary to what happened in Israel, the underpriests with a heavenly hope could, because of the ransom sacrifice, enter “the holy place” which is the Most Holy symbolizing heaven. The requirement was that each one of the underpriests also sacrificed his body, just as Jesus did. (Romans 8:23)
The High priest entered the Most Holy with blood on the Day of Atonement each year. This was a type of Jesus Christ who entered into heaven with the value of his blood, as we read in Hebrews 9:24-26:
24 For Christ did not enter into a holy place made with hands, which is a copy (antitypos) of the reality (alethinos), but into heaven itself, so that he now appears before God on our behalf. 25 This was not done to offer himself often, as when the high priest enters into the holy place from year to year with blood that is not his own. 26 Otherwise, he would have to suffer often from the founding of the world. But now he has manifested himself once for all time at the conclusion of the systems of things to do away with sin through the sacrifice of himself.
The action of the High Priest on the Day of Atonement foreshadowed that Jesus would die a sacrificial death, that he would get a resurrection, and that he would ascend to heaven to present his sacrificed blood before Jehovah.
However, the High Priest offered two animals, a bull and a goat, which also have a prophetic meaning. We read in Leviticus 16:11-16:
11 “Aaron will present the bull of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make atonement in behalf of himself and his house; afterward he will slaughter the bull of the sin offering, which is for himself. 12 “He will then take the fire holder full of burning coals from the altar before Jehovah and two handfuls of fine perfumed incense, and he will bring them inside the curtain. 13 He will also put the incense on the fire before Jehovah, and the cloud of the incense will envelop the Ark cover, which is on the Testimony, so that he may not die. 14 “He will take some of the bull’s blood and spatter it with his finger in front of the cover on the east side, and he will spatter some of the blood with his finger seven times before the cover. 15 “He will then slaughter the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, and bring its blood inside the curtain and do with its blood the same as he did with the bull’s blood; he is to spatter it toward the cover and before the cover.16 “He must make atonement for the holy place concerning the acts of uncleanness of the Israelites and concerning their transgressions and their sins, and that is what he should do for the tent of meeting, which is located among them in the midst of their acts of uncleanness.
The Scriptures show that the ransom sacrifice will be applied for two different groups. The blood of the bull that made atonement for The High Priest and his family would foreshadow the application of the ransom sacrifice for the spiritual priests, the 144,000 with the heavenly calling. And the blood of the goat for the people of Israel would foreshadow the application of the ransom sacrifice for those who will live in the earthly paradise.[1]
Table 1.1 Types and antitypes
| TYPE | ANTITYPE |
| The High Priest. | Jesus Christ. |
| The priests. | Anointed Christians with the heavenly calling. |
| The Most Holy (the holy place). | Heaven. |
| The Holy. | The situation of the anointed Christians on the earth. |
| The curtain between the Holy and Most Holy. | The body of Jesus. |
| Temple sacrifices. | The sacrifice of the body and blood of Jesus. |
| The High Priest into the Most Holy with blood. | The sacrificial death of Jesus.
His resurrection. Presenting his blood before Jehovah. |
| The blood of the bull. | The ransom sacrifice applied to those with the heavenly calling. |
| The blood of the goat. | The ransom sacrifice applied to those with the earthly hope. |
From the discussion above we understand that the basic parts of a prophetic type have concrete antitypical fulfillments. This means that prophetic types are not similar to illustrations where we only are taught one or more basic principles or procedures. When we study prophetic types, we must ask for the antitypical fulfillment of each part. We cannot just ask what the whole prophetic type reminds us of, as is the procedure of the members of the Governing Body.
| Contrary to the pattern given in the Scriptures, as described above, the members of the Governing Body treat prophetic patterns in the same way as they treat illustrations. This means that in most cases they do not ascribe any prophetic meaning to the prophetic types, but they ask what the types remind us of, and the principles we can learn from the prophetic types. |
Part II discusses the details showing that the Jubilee in Israel was a prophetic tupe of the Great Jubilee.
[1]. See the book, Life Everlasting in the Freedom of the Sons of God (1966), pages 389-391. Table 1.1 types and antitypes
