Bible Dictionaries
Figure

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

"a type, figure, pattern," is translated "figures" (i.e., representations of gods) in Acts 7:43; in the RV of ver. 44 (for AV, "fashion") and in Romans 5:14 , of Adam as a "figure" of Christ. See ENSAMPLE.

an adjective, used as a noun, denotes, lit., "a striking back;" metaphorically, "resisting, adverse;" then, in a Passive sense, "struck back;" in the NT metaphorically, "corresponding to," (a) a copy of an archetype (anti, "corresponding to, and No. 1), i.e., the event or person or circumstance corresponding to the type, Hebrews 9:24 , RV, "like in pattern" (AV, "the figure of"), of the tabernacle, which, with its structure and appurtenances, was a pattern of that "holy place," "Heaven itself," "the true," into which Christ entered, "to appear before the face of God for us." The earthly tabernacle anticipatively represented what is now made good in Christ; it was a "figure" or "parable" (Hebrews 9:9 ), "for the time now present," RV, i.e., pointing to the present time, not "then present," AV (see below); (b) "a corresponding type," 1 Peter 3:21 , said of baptism; the circumstances of the flood, the ark and its occupants, formed a type, and baptism forms "a corresponding type" (not an antitype), each setting forth the spiritual realities of the death, burial, and resurrection of believers in their identification with Christ. It is not a case of type and antitype, but of two types, that in Genesis, the type, and baptism, the corresponding type.

"a casting or placing side by side" (para, "beside," ballo, "to throw") with a view to comparison or resemblance, a parable, is translated "figure" in the AV of Hebrews 9:9 (RV, "a parable for the time now present") and Hebrews 11:19 , where the return of Isaac was (parabolically, in the lit. sense of the term) figurative of resurrection (RV, "parable"). See No. 2 (a). See PARABLE.

Notes: (1) The synonymous noun hupotuposis, "an example, pattern," 1 Timothy 1:16; 2 Timothy 1:13 , denotes simply a delineation or outline. (2) For metaschematizo, rendered "I have in a figure transferred" in 1 Corinthians 4:6 , where the fact stated is designed to change its application, i.e., from Paul and Apollos to circumstances in Corinth, see FASHION.