Biblical Theology

Biblical theology means studying scripture one passage at a time. This is also called exegetical theology, taking one passage and interpreting it exegetically. Theological education begins with the study of exegesis and hermeneutics, teaching students the principles of interpreting passages of scripture, to serve as the tools of their work. These are basic essential skills for any believer and for any future pastor.

When we study a subject in the Bible, we start by finding the main passages that relate to that subject. We take each passage, one at a time and look at the meaning of that passage. Each passage must be studied apart from the other passages, on its own merits, or in its own context. In this first step we do not use one passage to interpret another passage. We compare passages later.

We interpret the passage by its plain intention, not allegorically (figuratively). The passage is interpreted by plain common sense and not by looking for a hidden or spiritual meaning. There are figurative passages in the Bible, especially in the prophets, but these are intentional in that they relate to Christ. We are not free to interpret scripture figuratively otherwise.

There are different genres of scripture. A genre is a type of literature. For example, there are the poetic and apocalyptic styles and the historical narrative. Apocalyptic is a type of prophetic literature, like Revelation. Each genre has principles for interpreting it. It is wrong to interpret symbolic language literally and wrong to interpret literal language symbolically. We always look for the scripture’s stated intent.

Biblical or exegetical theology involves looking at the literary (grammatical), cultural and historical contexts of each passage, as well as the original language, whether Hebrew or Greek. Exegetical theology is inductive, which means that we move from the particular to the general. We look for actual, particular, evidence of meaning within the passage and do not start with general ideas about a doctrine.

If we are studying a topic on the Holy Spirit, we might have a passage in Ezekiel, a passage in John and several other passages. It is important that we complete every relevant passage, or our study will not consider all that the Bible has to say about the issue. When we have completed each individual passage, we are ready to move onto the next stage.