Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 57:227 (Jul 1900)
Article: The Present Status Of The Biblical Theology Of The Old Testament
Author: George Stockton Burroughs

BSac 57:227 (July 1900) p. 512

The Present Status Of The Biblical Theology Of The Old Testament

Prof George Stockton Burroughs

WE may fittingly style biblical theology the pulse of both biblical and theological studies. The occasion and circumstances of its rise, the steps of its growth and development until it has become a clearly defined and justly recognized department of biblical inquiry, together with its central position as related both to other biblical studies and also to all departments of theological investigation, lead to the sure conviction that the condition of this science, at any given period, may be taken as a definite symptom of the general situation and trend of religious thought.

We may truly say that biblical theology sits as queen among the various biblical studies, the foundations of her throne resting not in one alone, but in all. As these, therefore, are firmly grounded, she sits securely; as these are shaken, severally or collectively, her seat is jeopardized. Biblical canonics lie at the foundation of biblical theology; all questions relative to the extent and authority of the Scriptures must be determined before the limits of her territory have been clearly marked off. Biblical textual criticism must discover the exact text of the biblical writings in its original form, so far as may be possible, that her data may be in proper shape for investigation. Biblical literary criticism must have grappled with questions of the style, authorship, integrity, and date of the several biblical books before she can proceed to arrange in order the several truths these bring her. Biblical archaeology must

BSac 57:227 (July 1900) p. 513

have made answer, up to the present, as to our knowledge of the biblical past before the path along which she shall advance has been properly illumined. Biblical philology and hermeneutics must have testified as to the fundamental principles of the genius of the biblical languages and the essential rules of interpretation, and biblical exegesis must have applied these principles and rules to the individual passages of the biblical writings before biblical theology is at length fully ready to essay her task. Again, theology in all its various departments—dogmatic, historical, practical—finds its common foundation in the facts and principles of biblical theology.1 It is the purpose of the present article, in view of this essentially intimate relation between biblical theology on the one hand and all biblical studies and lines of theological inquiry and advance on the other, to endeavor to take a survey, somewhat comprehensive in character, of the present situation of Old Testament studies, and of the necessary influence of this situation upon theological inquiry, in so ...