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What is Biblical Theology and How Do You Do It?

A Brief Introduction to Biblical Theology

The Bible is a complex, collection of ancient documents. Though Christians affirm the inspiration of scripture and argue that God communicates to us through the Bible, most Christians also affirm that God allows the unique perspective of the biblical authors to shine through in their writings. The allowance of unique perspectives in the Bible means that each book may be said to have its own distinctive theology.

That’s why it can be helpful to talk about Matthew’s theology or Isaiah’s theology. We can benefit from the sustained study of individual books of the Bible. Similarly, we can benefit from studying the Old Testament’s theology or the New Testament’s theology.

When we want to understand the message of the whole Bible, though, we need to engage in a discipline called “Biblical Theology.” Unfortunately, we cannot simply combine our study of Matthew, Isaiah, the Old Testament, or the New Testament. The Bible contains so much diverse material that we must think carefully and clearly about how it fits together. So, the goal of Biblical Theology is to identify the major theological threads that run through the whole Bible and show God’s unifying message.

In his book on Biblical Theology, Ben Witherington makes three helpful points about how we should do biblical theology.

1) Pay attention to how biblical authors use other biblical books

First, he argues that a key aspect of doing Biblical Theology is learning how to think about scripture similar to how the biblical authors thought about scripture. Learning to do this will require us to pay attention when one passage of scripture refers to another passage in the Bible. An obvious example of this happens in 1 & 2 Chronicles. The author of Chronicles uses material from 1 & 2 Samuel and 1 & 2 Kings. When we pay attention to how he uses this material, we can see how he interacts with authoritative texts. We also see this in Matthew’s gospel when he refers to passages from the Old Testament that prophesied about Jesus. We find examples of this in nearly every book of the Bible.

2) Allow the Old Testament to Stand on its Own

Second, Witherington argues that Biblical Theology must allow the Old Testament to stand on its own. Often, Christians only read the Old Testament looking for ways to connect it to Jesus. This type of reading has its place, but it can inadvertently minimize the value of the Old Testament as God’s word. The Old Testament is the story of God’s covenant relationship with Israel. We need its message to understand the character of God. When we go to the Old Testament ignoring its unique contribution to our understanding of God, we do ourselves a great disservice.

3) Recognize that Jesus Transforms our Understanding of the Whole Bible.

Third, even though we must allow the Old Testament to stand on its own, we must also recognize that Jesus is the full revelation of God. Since Jesus fully reveals God to us, we must pay attention to how the Old Testament prepared us for his coming and for how Jesus transformed the way we understand the Old Testament. The newness of Jesus’s work is sometimes explained as a part of God’s progressive revelation. This concept suggests that God revealed himself in stages until he ultimately revealed himself fully in Jesus.

Hebrew 1:1-3a illustrates this idea:

Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word.”

You may be wondering why it matters that we allow the Old Testament to speak for itself if we must also see how Jesus transforms our understanding of it. It’s a great question and one that has occupied the minds of Christians for centuries.

4) Keep a Trinitarian Focus

Witherington adds a fourth point for how we should do biblical theology: make sure it is Trinitarian. He argues that only reading the Bible with Jesus in mind can be detrimental if it means that our theology is not Trinitarian. The triune nature of God is crucial to Christian belief. Our understanding of the Bible must incorporate all three persons of the Trinity. As Witherington points out, the Old Testament focuses on the Father, the Gospels focus on Jesus, and Acts and the letters focus on the Holy Spirit.

So, in summary…

Biblical Theology is an approach to the Bible that tries to connect common threads that run throughout the whole Bible. When we do biblical theology we follow similar paths taken by biblical authors, we allow each part of the Bible to stand on its own, and we see how the Triune God works in, through, and over every stage.