.
Subsections
Biblical Theology Series on Each Biblical Book
Old Testament Theology
New Testament Theology
.
.
Order of Contents
About
Whole Bible 10+
Discipline of Biblical Theology 4+
History
Relation to Systematic Theology
Dictionary & Encylopedia
.
About Biblical Theology: What is it?
Biblical Theology is not a different theology from Systematic Theology or Historical Theology, but rather is simply God’s revealed theology as organized, viewed and expounded by surveying the unfolding history of redemption through the books of the Bible, as opposed to systematizing it according to fundamental principles or viewing it as it has developed historically through Church history.
As such, Biblical Theology often brings out insights and treatments of topics not typically found in Systematic and Historical theologies, which sometimes brings with it a different emphasis. Different facets of the diamond of the Revelation of God are often brought out more prominently depending on the angle from which one views it, all of which angles that shed light upon the beauty of God’s Word, the true Christian will cherish.
.
Treatises of Biblical Theology on the Whole Bible 10+
1600’s, Reformed
Owen, John – Biblical Theology: the History of Theology from Adam to Christ Buy (1661; SDG, 2012) 856 pp.
Owen (1616–1683) was an English, puritan, non-conformist, congregationalist, minister and theologian. He was also an academic administrator at the University of Oxford.
This work is not in Owen’s 16 volume Works, nor in his Hebrews commentary, but must be purchased as a separate volume, it being only recently translated out of the Latin.
The volume was not originally intended to treat of ‘Biblical Theology’ as such (which is a bit more modern than Owen), but rather of theology itself, the revelation of God, as divided into natural and supernatural theology, as the latter was progressively, historically revealed through Scripture.
van Mastricht, Peter – vol. 6 of Theoretical Practical Theology (2nd ed. 1698; RHB)
Edwards, John – Polpoikilos Sophia, A Complete History or Survey of All the Dispensations & Methods of Religion, from the Beginning of the World to the Consummation of All Things, as Represented in the Old & New Testament, showing the Several Reasons & Designs of those Different Administrations & the Wisdom & Goodness of God in the Government of His Church through All the Ages of it (London, 1699) 774 pp. ToC 1, 2
John Edwards (1637–1716) was a reformed, Anglican divine.
.
1700’s, Reformed
Edwards, Jonathan – A History of the Work of Redemption, Comprising an Outline of Church History (NY: American Tract Society, 1816) 450 pp. ToC PDF
Edwards (1703–1758) gives a history of redemption (the preminent thing God is concerned about) from the Fall to the End of the World, including an interpretation of post-Apostolic Church history through the lens of a historicist eschatology.
.
1800’s
Reformed
Whytock, George – Essays 1-8 ToC in Essays on the Church in A Short Vindication of Presbytery: with Twelve Essays on the Church ed. Thomas M’Crie the younger (Edinburgh: W.P. Kennedy, 1843), pp. 97-217
Whytock (1750-1805) was an Old Light, Anti-Burgher, Scottish, Secession minister.
Jones, Sr., Charles Colcock – The History of the Church of God During the Period of Revelation (d. 1863; NY: Charles Scribner, 1867) 550 pp. no ToC
“It covered the Old Testament period along a plan which showed the progression of God’s dealings with his people. A companion volume covering the New Testament period does not seem to have been published. Jones argued that the ‘Word of God [was] one harmonious whole: one continuous revelation and development of the covenant of grace’ (p. 141), which Jones labored in this volume to ‘unfold.'” – Andrew Myers
Robinson, Stuart – Discourses on Redemption: as Revealed at ‘Sundry Times & in Diverse Manners’, Designed both as Biblical Expositions for the People and Hints to Theological Students 3rd American ed. (Richmond, VA: Presbyterian Committee of Publication, 1866) 500 pp. ToC
Robinson was an American Southern Presbyterian, and has attempted “to follow the development of the one great central thought of the Book through the successive eras of revelation.” – p. iv
Bannerman, David Douglas – The Scripture Doctrine of the Church: Historically & Exegetically Considered (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1887) 620 pp. ToC
D. Douglas Bannerman was of the Free Church of Scotland, the son of the more well known Free Church Professor James Bannerman (known for his works on Justification and The Church of Christ).
This work traces the history and teachings about the Church, and the unfolding thereof from the time of Abraham through the Acts and the Epistles. James Bannerman had written the classic systematic exposition of the doctrine of the Church in two volumes; this work is an attempt to cover the same topic from a Biblical-Historical methodology. It is very good, though Douglas is weaker on the purity of worship than his father was.
.
Non-Reformed
Storr, Gottlob Christian – An Elementary Course of Biblical Theology, vol. 1, 2 (Andover, 1826) ToC 1, 2
Storr (17476-1805) was a German Protestant theologian and professor of philosophy and theology at Tubingen and Stuttgart. He was an outspoken advocate of Biblical supranaturalism, and founder of Ältere Tübinger Schule (a conservative Tübingen school of theologians). His conservative orthodox views in theology placed him at odds with proponents of the Enlightenment, rationalism and Kantian philosophy.
Storr was the first to propose that the New Testament book of Mark was written prior to the other Gospels (Markan priority), an assertion that opposed the traditional view that the book of Matthew was the earliest Gospel written.
This work is laid out like a systematic theology, but as his method is very exegetical through the history of Scripture, like a Biblical theology, it is placed here. Storr represents a transitional phase during the 1700’s from traditional dogmatics to Biblical theologies.
Weidner, Revere Franklin
Biblical Theology of the Old Testament, based on Oehler (Fleming H. Revell, 1896) 365 pp. ToC
Weidner (1851-1915) was a Lutheran pastor, professor of theology and a prolific writer.
“Weidner was formative of early American Lutheran Theology from a Confessional perspective… These books [on OT & NT theology] serve as broad theological overviews of Scripture, emphasizing redemptive history. Weidner’s work on this subject predates that of Geerhardus Vos who is often credited with bringing that discipline into the conservative evangelical church.” – Jordan Cooper
Oehler (1812-1872) was a conservative, German, Lutheran, pastor and Old Testament scholar. His work is at a scholarly level.
“He admitted the composite authorship of the Pentateuch and the Book of Isaiah, and did much to counteract the antipathy against the Old Testament that had been fostered by Schleiermacher… He opposed the union of the Lutheran and Reformed churches, and while declaring in favor of confessional Lutheranism, he held aloof from the old Lutheran party.” – Wikipedia
Biblical Theology of the New Testament, vol. 1 (Teaching of Jesus & Peter), 2 (Felming H. Revell) ToC 1, 2
.
1900’s, Reformed
Vos, Geerhardus
Biblical Theology: Old & New Testaments (Eerdmans, 1948) 450 pp. ToC
Vos (1862-1949) was one of the last conservative theologians at Old Princeton, and is known as the father of reformed Biblical Theology.
“Biblical Theology is that branch of Exegetical Theology which deals with the process of the self-revelation of God deposited in the Bible.”
Redemptive History & Biblical Interpretation: The Shorter Writings of Geerhardus Vos ed. Richard Gaffin (P&R, 1980) 560 pp. ToC
Robertson, O. Palmer – The Christ of the Covenants (P&R, 1980) 300 pp. ToC
Robertson (1937-). This work is one of the best, detailed, contemporary arguments for Covenant Theology. Robertson comes from a 2-Covenant perspective (not holding to a distinct Covenant of Redemption).
.
1900’s – 2000’s Broadly Evangelical
Hafemann, Scott – Biblical Theology: Retrospect & Prospect Buy (IVP Academic, 2002) 286 pp.
Hafemann has been a professor of New Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in MA. He was formerly a professor of New Testament Greek & Exegesis at Wheaton College.
Goldsworthy, Graeme
According to Plan: The Unfolding Revelation of God in the Bible (IVP Academic, 1991; 2002) 251 pp. ToC
Goldsworthy (b. 1934) is an Anglican who is a popular writer in Biblical theology.
The Goldsworthy Trilogy: The Gospel & the Kingdom, The Gospel & Wisdom, The Gospel in Revelation Buy (Paternoster, 2001) 575 pp.
The first work views Christ in the Pentateuch and the O.T. historical books, the second views Christ in the O.T. wisdom literature, and the third is about the purpose and contemporary relevance of the Book of Revelation.
Kaiser, Walter – The Promise-Plan of God: a Biblical Theology of the Old & New Testaments Pre Buy (Zondervan, 2008) 432 pp.
Kaiser (b. 1933) is an evangelical Old Testament scholar who has been a professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts.
.
On the Discipline of Biblical Theology
Articles
1700’s
Gabler, Johann Philipp – ‘On the Proper Distinction Between Biblical and Dogmatic Theology’ (1787) 10 pp. An address. Excerpted from John Sandys-Wunsch & Laurence Eldredge, ‘J. P. Gabler & the Distinction between Biblical & Dogmatic Theology: Translation, Commentary, and Discussion of His Originality,” Scottish Journal of Theology 33 (1980), pp. 133-44
Gabler (1753–1826) was the first to clearly and consciously define Biblical theology as its own distinct discipline. Gabler was a German Protestant Christian theologian of the school of Griesbach and Eichhorn. “…the ideas he expressed were those of eighteenth-century Enlightenment theology.” – Translator’s Introduction
.
1800’s
Briggs, Charles A.
‘Biblical Theology’ (1882)
Briggs goes over the history of this branch of theology, focusing on its German development.
“Biblical Theology is that Theological Discipline which presents the Theology of the Bible in its historical formation within the Canonical Writings.”
‘The Edward Robinson Chair of Biblical Theology in the Union Theological Seminary, New York’ (1891)
Birggs had worked “for some years past” in developing a department dedicated to Biblical theology. Briggs was the first to be a professor of such at Union Theological Seminary in New York in 1891, before such a position came to Princeton with Vos.
“Edward Robinson was the pupil of Moses Stuart, the father of Biblical learning in America.”
Vos, Geerhardus – ‘The Idea of Biblical Theology as a Science & as a Theological Discipline: Inaugural Address’ in Inauguration of the Rev. Geerhardus Vos as Professor of Biblical Theology (NY: Anson D.F. Randolph, 1894), pp. 1-40
Vos (1862-1949) was one of the last conservative theologians at Old Princeton, and is known as the father of reformed Biblical Theology.
“Biblical Theology is suited to furnish a most effective antidote to the destructive critical views now prevailing.”
.
1900’s
Murray, John – ”Biblical Theology’: A Book Review’ (1948)
“There is no better definition of Biblical Theology known to the present writer than that given by Dr. Vos.”
Muller, Richard – ‘Biblical Theology’ in The Study of Theology (Zondervan, 1991), ch. 2, pp. 85-96
Muller (b. 1948) is a historian of reformed theology. In this volume, he fundmantally posits the objective witness of the Scriptures in history.
.
2000’s
Poythress, Vern S. – ‘Biblical Studies: Kinds of Biblical Theology’ Westminster Theological Journal 70 (2008): 129-42
Poythress (b. 1946)
.
Book
Hafemann, Scott – Biblical Theology: Retrospect & Prospect Buy (IVP Academic, 2002) 286 pp. Broadly evangelical
Hafemann has been a professor of New Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in MA. He was formerly a professor of New Testament Greek & Exegesis at Wheaton College.
.
On the History of Biblical Theology
Articles
2000’s
Barcellos, Richard – ‘Is Biblical Theology Older than Many Think?’ 15 paragraphs at RBAP.net Calvinistic baptist
Fesko, J.V. – ‘Who Lurks Behind Geerhardus Vos? Sources & Predecessors’ in Reformed Faith & Practice, vol. 6, #2 (Sept., 2021)
“This brief essay defends the claim that “father of Reformed biblical theology” is a misleading title and should be set aside, and that biblical theology was not unique to him [Vos]. The essay substantiates this claim with two lines of argumentation. First, evidence reveals that key insights of Vos’s biblical theology were not his own, as Vos himself hints, but that he drew them from another contemporary theologian [Karl Friedrich Nösgen, d. 1913] who, to my knowledge, is practically unrecognized in current Vos historiography. Second, Vos’s own colleagues [such as Francis Patton] did not believe he was the father of Reformed biblical theology and instead looked to another American Reformed theologian [i.e. Jonathan Edwards]…
…This essay has documented that Vos gleaned at least two ideas from Nösgen: defining biblical theology as the history of revelation and word-act revelation… Who else other than Nösgen and Edwards stand behind Vos?”
Vos also had cited Anglican theologian, Thomas D. Bernard (1815-1904).
Myers, Andrew – ‘Biblical Theology in America before Vos’ (Log College Press, 2024) 11 paragraphs
Myers substantially builds on Fesko’s work above.
.
On the Relation of Biblical Theology to Exegetical & Systematic Theology
Quotes
1800’s
W.G.T. Shedd
Dogmatic Theology, Pt. 1, Ch. 2
“Systematic theology should balance and correct biblical theology, rather than vice versa, for the following reasons. First, because biblical theology is a deduction from only a part of Scripture. Its method is fractional… Science is a survey of the whole, not of a part. True theological science is to be found in the long series of dogmatic systems extending from Augustine’s City of God to the present day. To confine the theologian to the fragmentary and incomplete view given in biblical theology would be the destruction of theology as a science.”
.
Abraham Gosman
‘Charge’ in Inauguration of the Rev. Geerhardus Vos as Professor of Biblical Theology (NY: Anson D.F. Randolph, 1894), p. viii Gosman had studied under Archibald Alexander and Samuel Miller.
“Biblical Theology stands in close relations both to Exegetical and Systematic Theology, and yet has its own well-defined bounds. It presupposes Exegetical Theology; it furnishes the material for Systematic Theology.
If Systematic Theology is, as we may conceive it to be, the finished building, harmonious in its proportions, symmetrical and beautiful; then Exegetical Theology may be regarded as the quarry from which the material is taken; and Biblical Theology, as putting the granite blocks into form, not polished and graven, but shaped and fitted for the place they are to fill, as the structure grows in its vastness and beauty. It seeks the saving facts and truths as they lie in the Word, and are embedded, and to some extent expressed, in the history of the people of God. God’s methods are always historical and genetic, and it conforms to His methods. It views these words and facts in their historical relations and their progressive development.
It aims not merely to arrive at the ideas and facts as they appear in particular authors and in the books justly ascribed to them, and as they may be modified in their form by time, culture, influences friendly or hostile; but to set forth these facts and truths thus ascertained in their relation to the other books in which they may appear in clearer light, — to trace their progress and unfolding from the germ to the ripened fruit. As the stream of sacred history runs parallel with that of revelation, it borders closely upon Historical Theology. But the two conceptions are distinct.”
.
Article
Gamble, Richard – ‘The Relationship Between Biblical Theology & Systematic Theology’ in ed. A.T.B. McGowan, Always Reforming: Explorations in Systematic Theology Pre (IVP, 2007), pp. 211-39
.
Dictionary
Collegeville Pastoral Dictionary of Biblical Theology ed. Carroll Stuhlmueller (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1996) 1,180 pp. The publisher is Romanist.
.
.
Encyclopedia
ed. Bauer, Johannes B. – Encyclopedia of Biblical Theology, vol. 1 (A-H), 2 (Hu-R), 3 (S-W) (London: Sheed & Ward, 1970)
Bauer (1927-2008) was a Roman Catholic theologian, patristic scientist, biblical scholar and ecumenist. He was a pioneer of lay theology.
.
.
.
Related Pages