Though I've written about this before, I wanted to repeat a few thoughts as I transition into writing on the Church, who is the primary Biblical archetype.
A form is an idealized character or concept, which can be followed or modeled after. This works in two basic ways. I’ll use the Proverbs 31 woman as an example. Sometimes, the Proverbs 31 woman is talked about as a stereotype; she is someone who has characteristics that all women possess as they mature. In this way she is an embodiment of a generalization applied to all women. When other women do similar actions as her, you could comment that they are like the Proverbs 31 stereotype.
The other use of a form, or archetype, is to employ the image as a model, or the epitome, of what all women should be. I hate when people do this with the Proverbs 31 woman. It is my opinion, fiercely held, that the proverbial woman in chapter 31 is not a universal standard for women any more than the other physical characters of Scripture. Of course that last chapter in Proverbs has something to teach women, but its elevation has caused unnecessary confusion; just as the deification of Mary, or Jael would cause complications if they were held up as archetypes, even though they are each called “most blessed among women”. We find ourselves in so much unnecessary trouble by making unneeded rules and guidelines that God never intended us to be under.
G. K. Chesterton, speaking of the complexities of Christianity, gives this metaphor: “Suppose some mathematical creature from the moon were to reckon up the human body; he would at once see that the essential thing about it was that it was duplicate. A man is two men, he on the right exactly resembling him on the left. Having noted that there was an arm on the right and one on the left, a leg on the right and one on the left, he might go further and still find on each side the same number of fingers, he same number of toes, twin eyes, twin ears, twin nostrils, and even twin lobes of the brain. At last he would take it as a law; and then, where he found a heart on one side, would deduce that there was another heart on the other. And just then, where he most felt he was right, he would be wrong... Now, actual insight or inspiration is best tested by whether it guesses these hidden malformations or surprises.”
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