A Copy & Shadow of Heavenly Things
The Levitical Priests Served A Copy
The Hebrew writer tells us that the priest under the law of Moses "… 5…serve[d] a copy and shadow of the heavenly things." Hebrews 8:4,5
[Jesus is] a minister in the sanctuary (holy of holies) in the true tabernacle set up by the Lord and not man. Hebrews 8:2
Type - tupos
He then tells us that Moses was warned when he was about to build the earthly tabernacle to make sure he made it according the the pattern (Greek: tupos – type), God showed him on the mountain.
The writer is telling us that the tabernacle was a type ( a copy and shadow, not the reality itself) and therefore, he will say, so is the entire Mosaical system a type (a copy) as he elaborates in the rest of chapter eight.
What was Moses shown on the mountain? Deut. 25:8,9,40. It may have been pictures, drawings, or even a model of the tabernacle and all its furnishings.
Archetype
Whatever Moses was shown, it was a plan from heaven of how God wanted the tabernacle constructed. This type (copy) is from the original in heaven, the archetype. The archetype was used to make a "copy & shadow of the heavenly things" on earth, an earthly tabernacle which itself is a type (copy) of the original in heaven. What’s the purpose of the copy? To show us the real object, the antitype, when it appears. And a copy implies an original.
What is the antitype of the tabernacle?
Where does God live? Not in temples made by hands, Acts 17:24;7:48,49. We are (the church) the temple of the God. 2 Cor 6:14-7:1. And individually our bodies are a temple also. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 you were bought with a price.
So glorify God in your body. 1 Cor. 6:19,20
In God’s love, Scott