Biblical Theology
Monday, October 17, 2022
9:41 AM
It is important to be precise about what one means with the statement "Biblical Theology."  
It could refer to theological discourse that is grounded in scripture.  
Biblical Theology can also be understood as an overall view of scripture's message.  One example of such a theological summary of scripture would be M. Eugene Boring's proposed  way of understanding the theology of the Bible as narrating five acts:
"Act I. Creation:  God created all things and all persons. (Genesis 1-11)"  
"Act II.  Covenant: God made a covenant with one people for the sake of all people (Genesis 12-Malachi 4)."
"Act III.  Christ:  God sent His Son as Revealer, Redeemer, and Lord (Matthew-John)
"Act IV. Church:  God continues to act in calling and sending the community of the eshatologically renewed coveneant, the Church. (Acts-Jude)" 
"Act V.  Consummation:  God will bring History to a Worthy Conclusion. (Revelation)."
(Disciples and the Bible, Chalice Press, 1997).  
Boring's summary of biblical theology
Follows the shape of scripture.  
It derives an overall truth claim from each part. 
However, in this work "Biblical Theology" refers to the examination of the theological understanding of a particular passage of scripture, book, corpus, or author.
Biblical theology describes and analyzes the individual theology message(s) of a writing or collection of writings within the Bible.  
Sondra Schneiders provides a helpful analytical tool for examining the theology of particular of texts suggesting that biblical interpretation ought to consists of:
Examining the world behind the text--
This consists of examining the social-historical context of the events narrated in the text (i.e., the social context of Palestine in the times of Jesus; OR the experience of life during the hegemony of Babylon).  
It also consists of examining the social-historical context of the writing of the text understanding that there may be some distance between the two (i.e., Luke-Acts may have been written by a Gentile; it was written in Greek; and likely written for a Hellenistic benefactor.  It describes a Palestinian-Jewish context from a definitively Hellenistic set of lenses).  
Examining the world behind the text can best be thought of in the received definition of the "exegesis" --understanding what the biblical text meant when it was written, by whom it was written, to whom it was written.
Examining the world of the text:
Interrogating it's literary features; 
And It's theological character. 
This 