Biblical Theology is a discipline within Christian theology which studies the Bible from the perspective of understanding the progressive history of God revealing himself to Man following the Fall and throughout the Old Testament and New Testament. It particularly focuses on the epochs of the Old Testament in order to understand how each part of the it ultimately points forward to fulfillment in the life mission of Jesus Christ.

Biblical theology seeks to understand a certain passage in the Bible in light of all of the Biblical history leading up to it. It asks questions of the text such as:

• How much does this person or group know about the
  
  
  
  attributes of God?
• To what extent has God revealed his future plans of sending Jesus as the Messiah?
• How have Israel responded to God's interactions with them up to this point?

Biblical Theology puts individual texts in their historical context since what came before them is the foundation on which they are laid and what comes after is what they anticipate. Biblical Theology is sometimes called the "History of Special Revelation" since it deals with the unfolding and expanding nature of revelation as history progresses through the Bible.

The motivation for this branch of theology comes from such passages as Luke 24.27: "And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, (Jesus) explained to (the disciples) what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself." The assumption of this text seems to be that the Old Testament anticipated the Messiah and that Jesus fulfilled those prophecies. Thus, Biblical Theologians suggest

Biblical theology can be compared with and is complemented by Systematic theology in that the former focuses on historical progression through out the Bible while the later focuses on thematic progression through out the Bible. Systematic theology might jump around the Bible to different sections all related to a central topic where as Biblical theology focuses on understanding the flow of redemptive narrative as God relates to mankind.

An important note should be made in relation to the concept of Progressive revelation in that the Christian Biblical concept differs from the Islamic understanding in which successive revelations of God might annul former revelations completely replacing them with a new truth. The Christian model within Biblical Theology sees the concept of progressive revelation as progressive revelation of new truth which supports, expands and stands upon former revelations of God's truth like brick laying. This progressive revelation ultimately climaxes in Christ, and ends with the New Testament acts of the Apostles under the direction of the Holy spirit awaiting the second coming of Christ.

See also

• Covenant theology
• Christian eschatology
• Dispensationalism
• Biblical hermeneutics
• Grammatical-historical hermeneutics

聖經神學