Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments by Geerhardus Vos

Essentials in Biblical Theology Series

Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments by Geerhardus Vos[1]

Geerhardus Vos (1862–1949), a distinguished professor of biblical theology at Princeton Theological Seminary and often referred to as the father of Reformed biblical theology, culminated his career by systematically articulating his understanding of biblical theology as a distinct discipline. This endeavor drew upon his extensive years of experience in teaching and preaching the Bible and was published in 1948 as Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments. Though dated in some ways, this work and the approach established by Vos in this volume has had a significant influence on contemporary evangelical biblical theology. 

In Biblical Theology, Vos defines the discipline of biblical theology as the historical unfolding of special revelation. The task of biblical theology, in this vein, is to demonstrate the organic unity and progressive development of Scripture that climaxes in the person and work of Jesus Christ. In light of the overarching direction of his work, there are several reasons why Vos’s magnum opus is worth remembering.

First, Vos helped give shape to biblical theology as a discrete discipline. He envisioned a method where biblical theology occupies a unique space between exegesis and systematic theology. While exegesis deals with the granular details of specific texts and systematic theology presents a logical, organized overview of biblical teachings, biblical theology focuses on the historical unfolding of these truths.[2] For Vos, the subject matter of the discipline is best characterized as the “history of special revelation” (v). Accordingly, he structures his study around significant historical epochs like the patriarchal period, the Mosaic era, and the time of prophetic revelation, culminating in the New Testament’s “new dispensation” (302). 

Second, Vos prioritized the coherence of the Bible’s message. In Biblical Theology, Vos presents God’s action in the world not as a collection of disjointed stories but as a unified and organically unfolding revelation of God’s redemptive plan. With the narratives of Scripture serving as an authoritative source for his reconstruction, Vos demonstrates the interconnectedness and coherence of God’s redemptive plan. Throughout his volume, Vos briefly summarizes the historical-critical consensus regarding a given stretch of the biblical account of Israel’s history and then shows both the inadequacy of the critical construct and the reasonableness of the biblical narrative’s witness. 

This confessional instinct serves an apologetic function but also an exegetical one, as Vos routinely makes use of the insight the critical questions had raised even while rejecting the answers that critical scholars gave to these interpretive issues. For example, against critics who doubt the historicity of the Abraham narratives, Vos observes that “according to the Bible they are real actors in the drama of redemption, the actual beginning of the people of God” (67). The account of the patriarchs is defended not only as a historical datapoint but also as a foundational feature of the Bible’s message of redemption.  

Third, Vos sought to balance the striking unity of the Bible’s message with the diversity of this revelation across the history of redemption. Vos argues that divine revelation unfolds progressively in the saving events and covenantal relationships recorded in biblical narrative, with each stage building upon the previous one. Revelation, in this view, is not a static product but a dynamic, divine activity unfolding within a providentially guided timeline. With this interpretive method in place, Vos traces key theological themes like covenant, law, kingdom, and salvation from their initial forms in the Old Testament to their fulfillment in Christ. 

Vos often speaks of the “organic” nature of special revelation. One way he illustrates this principle is through the metaphor of “a tree whose root system and whose crown spread out widely, while the trunk of the tree confines the sap for a certain distance within a narrow channel” (79). This word picture helps him explain the relationship between the nature of God’s actions during the patriarchal period (the growing root system), the Mosaic era (the narrow trunk), and the time of the New Testament (the outwardly expanding crown of revelation). This kind of reflective move allows Vos to affirm the strongest form of theological unity in redemptive history while also maintaining room for the growth of this understanding for God’s people across time.  

Finally, Vos held that the focal point of special revelation and the history of redemption is Jesus Christ. After the revelation of God in “a son” (Heb 1:1–2), “no higher speech [is] possible” (302). Indeed, “Jesus does not represent himself anywhere as being by his human earthly activity the exhaustive expounder of truth. Much rather he is the great fact to be expounded” (302; italics original). Just as the history of Israel involved mighty acts of God (like the exodus) alongside interpretation of those acts (like God’s speech to Moses), so too the person and work of Jesus as the Christ is interpreted by the preaching of the apostles. Within this interpretive framework, the contemporary church finds its bearings. As Vos notes, “the New Testament revelation, being the final one, stretches over all the extent of the other things Christ came to inaugurate” (303).  

There are several streams of scholarship that show the reception of Vos’s major work. For example, within contemporary Reformed approaches to biblical theology, Vos is often utilized as a trusted resource for the task of studying the Bible and grasping the sweep of redemptive history. The “redemptive-historical hermeneutic” developed by Herman Ridderbos in Redemptive History and the New Testament Scriptures likewise builds on the foundation that Vos helped establish.[3]

In evangelical biblical theology, Vos’s emphasis on tracing themes across redemptive history is often echoed in volumes in the influential New Studies in Biblical Theology series founded by Don Carson and now edited by Benjamin Gladd.  Recent works that share a family resemblance to Vos’s approach to biblical theology as a discipline (with a robust focus on redemptive history as an organizing principle) include A New Testament Biblical Theology: The Unfolding of the Old Testament in the New by G. K. Beale and In These Last Days: The Dynamics of Biblical Revelation by Graeme Goldsworthy.[4]

Furthermore, Vos’s ideas have been both used and interrogated in the field of biblical studies more broadly. For example, in Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments: Theological Reflection on the Christian Bible, Brevard Childs affirms the importance of redemptive history but seeks to prioritize the portrayal of this biblical history in light of the canonical context.[5] In Introduction to Old Testament Theology: A Canonical Approach, John Sailhamer pursues the unity of the Bible’s narrative shape but does so with a special focus on the compositional strategies of biblical authors.[6]

These kinds of interactions are some ways that Vos’s work has been productively received. Whether as a theological resource or as a dialogue partner, then, Vos’s work has continued to play a role in contemporary discussions of biblical theology among evangelicals. 

As we navigate the complexities of our own time, Vos’s work reminds us that the Scriptures are not merely a collection of ancient texts, but a living and active Word that speaks with authority and clarity to the questions and challenges of every generation. Through the lens of biblical theology, we can rediscover the richness and depth of the biblical story, and find ourselves drawn ever closer to the heart of God’s redemptive purposes.

Ched Spellman

Cedarville University (September 2025)

TL;DR

• Vos worked to establish biblical theology as a distinct field that mediates between exegesis and systematic theology, focusing on the historical unfolding of God’s special revelation.

• Vos emphasized the organic unity of the Bible’s message, showing how its diverse narratives form a coherent redemptive plan despite critical challenges.

• Vos highlighted the dynamic, historical progression of revelation, tracing key theological themes (covenant, law, kingdom, salvation) as they develop and culminate in Christ.

• For Vos, the person and work of Jesus Christ represent the focal point and fulfillment of all redemptive history, the final and definitive revelation of God.

[1] Geerhardus Vos, Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2014).

[2] Vos’s analogy for biblical theology and systematic theology is well-known: systematic theology draws a circle (highlighting the coherence of a truth within a system), whereas biblical theology draws a line (highlighting historical progression through time). See Vos’s inaugural address at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1894: “The Idea of Biblical Theology as a Science and as a Theological Discipline,” in Redemptive History and Biblical Interpretation: The Shorter Writings of Geerhardus Vos, ed. Richard B. Gaffin Jr. (P&R, 2001), 3–24.

[3] Herman N. Ridderbos, Redemptive History and the New Testament Scriptures (P&R, 1988).

[4] See G. K. Beale, A New Testament Biblical Theology: The Unfolding of the Old Testament in the New (Baker Academic, 2011) and Graeme Goldsworthy, In These Last Days: The Dynamics of Biblical Revelation (B&H Academic, 2024).

[5] Brevard S. Childs, Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments: Theological Reflection on the Christian Bible (Fortress Press, 1993).

[6] John H. Sailhamer, Introduction to Old Testament Theology: A Canonical Approach (Zondervan, 1995). Sailhamer also interacts directly with Vos’s proposal about the meaning of biblical theology in “Exegesis of the Old Testament as a Text,” in A Tribute to Gleason Archer (Moody Press, 1986), 27–96.