What is the difference between biblical theology and biblical studies? If you are coming from the Christian context like I am, this might be a difficult thing to separate.

First, What is Theology?

Theology in general literally means the study of God, but there are many sub-fields of theology. Theology for us is what we can extract not only from scripture, i.e. how to apply it to our daily lives, but also from the Christian traditions in which we were brought up or educated. This includes figures ranging from the ancient like Augustine to important Reformation figures like Martin Luther to Enlightenment figures like John Wesley. Each of these has laid out a foundation either for Christianity as a whole, or distinct Christian denominations.

There are three levels which theology can cover: dogma, doctrine, and opinion. Dogma is what unites Christendom, whether Catholic, Lutheran, or Pentecostal. These would be things such as the virgin birth, the full humanity and full deity of Christ, a literal, historical resurrection, and salvation through Christ alone.

Examples of Dogma, Doctrine, and Opinion

On the level of doctrine we have things like communion or the Eucharist. The Assemblies of God (Pentecostal) tradition I grew up in believes that the bread and wine are symbolic of the body and blood of Jesus, and are only representative. Catholics, however, believe in the True Presence, and that when the communion elements (or sacraments) are prayed over, they transubstantiate and become the real body and blood of Jesus.

Opinion would cover things such as whether we have guardian angels or not.

Theology is Rooted in Scripture and Tradition

All of these things at each level are rooted in and reasoned out from Scripture, beginning with the earliest Ecumenical Councils by the Church Fathers (like the Council of Nicea in 325 CE, Constantinople in 381 CE, Ephesus in 431 CE, and so on). Here, the basic dogma of Christianity was discussed at length, and a consensus was reached, establishing the basics of Christianity.

What divides the different Christian traditions would be matters of doctrine, not only the great divide between East and Western Christianity (which now leads us to Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism, broadly speaking) or the Reformation which split the Protestant Church in the West from the Roman Catholic Church, but also matters around which Pentecostals would unite versus Southern Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, etc.

We are still having theological conversations today rooted in scripture regarding things such as women in leadership in ministry, or the place of LGBTQ+ Christians, just to name a couple examples.

Theology is a spiritual and ethical exercise, with consequences for our churches and our lives. It can be (and is) an academic field of study, wherein people continue to reason and think. Many theologians are believers, though some in the academy are not.

Critical Biblical Scholarship

Biblical studies, however, is much less spiritual and tends to focus on the biblical text itself. Just as in theology, many biblical scholars are believers of all sorts and multiple faiths, and there are also atheists or agnostics who study the Bible and its world.

Biblical studies is more concerned with the historical context of the bible, the study of the text and how the text was produced and handed down to us, and different interpretations of the stories of the Bible from many different perspectives. There are many subfields also within biblical studies, which for Hebrew Bible can include comparative studies (studying other ancient literature and cultures and archeology of civilizations and empires like Egypt, Assyria and Babylon; the Persian, Greek, and Roan empires). Biblical scholars tend to need to have some skill and knowledge across many fields, including philology and linguistics; history; archeology; as well as the history of research in the field of biblical studies itself. Some scholars work in an interdisciplinary fashion, drawing from all other fields such as anthropology and sociology, law, psychology, linguistics, feminist or women’s studies, just to name a few.

What is biblical theology then?

Maybe you can already see the difference here between critical study of the Bible, and theology. Biblical theology is a Christian practice, which emphasizes the progressive nature of revelation in the Bible—that God chose His people Israel to be a holy people, and that under various forms of leadership (starting from the prophetic leadership of Moses, going through the period of the judges to the monarchic period of kings) it was clear that Israel would never reach the holiness that God needed from them. The only solution was for Jesus to replace the old covenant with Israel given to Moses, so that all could be given a chance at salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus, thus fulfilling God’s covenant with Abraham, the first patriarch, back in Genesis 12, which says through Abraham’s seed, all the world would be blessed. Sometimes Christians refer to themselves as children of Abraham, for this reason. Biblical theology focuses on the grand arc from the Old to New Testaments, always keeping Christ in mind as a way to interpret all of the Old Testament.

Last Updated: 10 December 2023