Biblical theology traces the history of interactions between God and man in the Bible. It is complementary to systematic theology, with a historical approach to knowledge of God. The Bible contains progressive revelations about God, leading to the redemption of his people through Jesus Christ. Biblical theologians assume the Bible is the authoritative word of God and often believe in the supernatural. Other types of biblical theology include phenomenological and exegetical theology.
Biblical theology is a branch of Christian theology that is most often concerned with the historical progression of people’s knowledge about God as described in the Bible. The study of biblical theology traces the history of the interactions between God and man. Its early proponents, including Geerhardus Vos (1862-1949), viewed biblical theology as at odds with some of the rationalistic tendencies of systematic theology, as biblical theologians usually believe in the supernatural to a greater extent than other theologians.
Despite some historical tensions, systematic theology and biblical theology generally have a complementary relationship with slightly different goals. While systematic theology attempts to classify or describe what is known or proposed about God according to logical formations, biblical theology seeks to trace the history of how such knowledge of God was revealed in the Bible. In other words, systematic theology tends to have a topical approach, while biblical theology more often has a historical approach to knowledge or propositions about God.
Vos and most other biblical theologians argue that the Bible contains a number of progressive revelations about the nature of God. The Old Testament introduces the character of God and the history of God’s dealings with human beings, especially the Israelites. God’s redemption of his people through Jesus Christ is the subject of the New Testament. These two main segments of Scripture tell the story of redemption. According to this view, everything in the Old Testament should be seen as a foreshadowing or orientation towards Jesus, while the New Testament can only be properly understood as a continuation of the redemption begun in the Old Testament.
To hold to this particular point of view, scholars generally have to make certain assumptions about the Bible. While many other Bible scholars or systematic theologians view the Bible as merely a religious text and may not believe in God at all, most biblical theologians hold that the Bible is the authoritative word of God. Much of the Old Testament view by a biblical theologian, for example, it is based on the assumption that the history of the Israelites is intentionally leading towards a future event: the coming of Christ, which could only occur in a supernatural way.
While discussion of redemption history is the most common type of biblical theology, the term is also sometimes used to describe other types of theological inquiry. One type has sometimes been called phenomenological, meaning that it seeks to describe the beliefs of certain people at certain times, as in the beliefs of the Israelites during their exile in Babylon. Others might consider exegetical theology—the attempt to use relevant information to determine the exact meaning of a biblical author’s words—as a branch of biblical theology. Those who practiced this type of theology would not necessarily hold the same assumptions about God and Scripture that others probably would.
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