a Greek word, properly signifying a type or figure corresponding to some other type.

The word antitype occurs twice in the New Testament; viz. in the epistle to the Hebrews, ix. 24, and in St Peter, i Ep. iii. 21, where its genuine import has been much controverted. The former says, that "Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are figures or antitypes of the true—now to appear in the presence of God for us." Now τύπος signifies the pattern by which another thing is made; and as Moses was obliged to make the tabernacle, and all things in it, according to the pattern showed him in the mount; the tabernacle so formed was the antitype of what was shown to Moses: any thing, therefore, formed according to a model or pattern, is an antitype. In the latter passage, the Apostle, speaking of Noah's flood, and the deliverance only of eight persons from it, says, Ο και μετα αντιτυπων εν δεκα βαπτισμα, Baptism, being an antitype to that, now saves us; not putting away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God, &c. The meaning is, that righteousness, or the answer of a good conscience towards God, now saves us by means of the resurrection of Christ, as formerly righteousness saved those Antitype, eight persons by means of the ark, during the flood.

The word antitype, therefore, here signifies a general multitude of circumstances; and the particle ὁ, whereunto, refers not to the immediate antecedent, ὁ ἀντίτυπος, water, but to all that precedes.

Antitype, among the ancient Greek fathers, and in the Greek liturgy, is also applied to the symbols of bread and wine in the sacrament. Hence it hath been argued, by many Protestants, that the Greeks do not really believe the doctrine of transubstantiation; because they call the bread and wine antitypes, ἀντίτυπα, q.d. figures, similitudes; and this even after the consecration.