The field started out as a Christian endeavor and aimed to provide an objective knowledge of early revelation, working as much as possible only with these biblical texts and their historical contexts, in the twentieth century it became informed by other voices and views, including those of feminist and Jewish scholars, which provided new insights and showed ways that the early work was bound by the perspectives of their authors.
Key scholars have included Walther Eichrodt, Gerhard von Rad, Phyllis Trible, Geerhardus Vos, and Jon Levenson.
Biblical theology seeks to understand the relationships between the various eras in God's revealing activity recorded in the Bible.
It is on the basis of biblical theology that the systematic theologian draws upon the pre-Pentecost texts of the Bible as part of the material from which Christian doctrine may be formulated.
[9] Especially important for bringing this field of study into the confessional tradition was Old Princeton theologian, Geerhardus Vos (Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments).
[12] He argued that the interpretation of biblical texts needed to be informed by the language and customs of the relevant historical period.
[11] Gabler's second task was to compare biblical ideas with each other to discover universal scriptural truths on which dogmatic theology could be based.
[12] Taking up Gabler's first task, George Lorenz Bauer wrote separate biblical theologies for the OT (1796) and the NT (1800–1802).
Heavily influenced by Neo-orthodoxy, the movement sought to escape the polarization of liberal theology and Christian fundamentalism.