Part of a series on The Bible
Biblical canon and books
Tanakh: Torah · Nevi'im · Ketuvim Old Testament · Hebrew Bible · New Testament · New Covenant · Deuterocanon · Antilegomena · Chapters & verses Apocrypha: Jewish · OT · NT
Development and authorship
Panbabylonism · Jewish Canon · Old Testament canon · New Testament canon · Mosaic authorship · Pauline epistles · Johannine works
Translations and manuscripts
Septuagint · Samaritan Pentateuch · Dead Sea scrolls · Targums · Peshitta · Vetus Latina · Vulgate · Masoretic text · Gothic Bible · Luther Bible · English Bibles
Biblical studies
Dating the Bible · Biblical criticism · Higher criticism · Textual criticism · Novum Testamentum Graece · NT textual categories · Documentary hypothesis · Synoptic problem · The Bible and history‎ · Biblical archaeology
Interpretation
Hermeneutics · Pesher · Midrash · Pardes · Allegorical · Literalism · Prophecy
Views
Inerrancy · Infallibility · Criticism · Islamic · Qur'anic · Gnostic · Judaism and Christianity · Law in Christianity
This box: view • talk • edit

Historical criticism or higher criticism is a branch of literary analysis that investigates the origins of a text: as applied in biblical studies it naturally investigates foremost the books of the Bible. Etymology According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word bible is from Latin biblia, traced from the same word through Medieval Latin and Late Latin A Biblical canon or canon of scripture is a list or Set of Biblical books considered to be authoritative as Scripture by a particular religious Books of the Bible are listed differently in the canons of Jews and Catholic, Protestant, Greek Orthodox Slavonic Orthodox Georgian Armenian Apostolic See also Old testament, Septuagint, Targum, Peshitta The Tanakh (תַּנַ"ךְ (taˈnax or; also Tenakh or Tenak is term " Torah " ( Hebrew: תּוֹרָה "teaching" or "instruction" sometimes translated as "Law" most commonly refers to Nevi'im (נְבִיאִים "Prophets" is the second of the three major sections in the Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh, between the Ketuvim (כְּתוּבִים "writings" is the third and final section of the Tanakh ( Hebrew Bible) after Torah and Nevi'im In Western Christianity, the Old Testament refers to the books that form the first of the two-part Christian Biblical canon. The term Hebrew Bible is a generic reference to those books of the Bible originally written in Biblical Hebrew (and the related Biblical Aramaic The term New Covenant (; Greek:, diathēkē kainē is used in the Bible (both in the Hebrew Bible and the Greek New Testament) to refer " Deuterocanonical books " is a term used since the sixteenth century in the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Christianity to describe certain books and passages Antilegomena (from Greek, meaning things contradicted or disputed literally spoken against) was an Epithet used by the Church Fathers to denote those The Bible comprises 24 books for Jews, 66 for Protestants, 73 for Catholics, and 78 for most Orthodox This article on Jewish apocrypha includes a survey of books written in the Jewish religious tradition either in the late pre-Christian era or in the early Christian era but The biblical apocrypha (from the Greek word ἀπόκρυφος meaning hidden) are books published in an edition of the Bible whose canonicity New Testament apocrypha are a number of writings of the early Christian church that give accounts of the teachings of Jesus, aspects of the life of Jesus accounts The Authors of the Bible have authored or co-authored literature that has appeared in the canons of Judaism and of Christianity Panbabylonism is a school of thought within Assyriology and Religious studies that considers the Hebrew Bible and Judaism as directly derived Rabbinic Judaism recognizes the twenty-four books of the Masoretic Text, commonly called the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible. The Old Testament is the first section of the two-part Christian Biblical canon, which includes the books of the Hebrew Bible as well as several Deuterocanonical The Biblical canon is the set of books Christians regard as divinely inspired and thus constituting the Christian Bible. Mosaic authorship is the traditional ascription to Moses of the authorship of the five books of the Torah or Pentateuch - Genesis, The Pauline epistles are the thirteen books in the New Testament traditionally attributed to and explicitly ascribed to Paul of Tarsus. Scholars have debated the authorship of the Johannine works ( Gospel of John, the first, second, and third epistles of John, and the Book The Bible has been translated into many languages from the Biblical languages of Hebrew and Greek. A Biblical manuscript is any handwritten copy of a portion of the text of the Bible. The Septuagint (ˈsɛptuədʒɪnt or simply " LXX " is the Koine Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, translated in stages between the The Samaritan Pentateuch is the text of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible, also called the Torah or Law that is used by the Samaritans The Dead Sea Scrolls consist of roughly 1000 documents including texts from the Hebrew Bible, discovered between 1947 and 1979 in eleven Caves A targum ( Hebrew: תרגום plural targumim, lit "translation interpretation" is an Aramaic Translation of the Hebrew The name 'Peshitta' The name 'Peshitta' is derived from the Syriac mappaqtâ pšîṭtâ (ܡܦܩܬܐ ܦܫܝܛܬܐ literally meaning 'simple version' Vetus Latina is a collective name given to the Biblical texts in Latin that were translated before St Jerome 's Vulgate The Vulgate is an early Fifth Century version of the Bible in Latin, and largely the result of the labours of Jerome, who was commissioned by The Masoretic Text ( MT) is the Hebrew text of the Jewish Bible ( Tanakh) The Gothic Bible or Wulfila Bible is the Christian Bible as translated by Wulfila into the Gothic language spoken by the Eastern Germanic or The Luther Bible is a German Bible translation by Martin Luther, first printed with both testaments in 1534 The efforts of translating the Bible from its original languages into over 2000 others have spanned more than two millennia. Biblical studies is the academic study of the Judeo-Christian Bible and related texts The Bible is a compilation of various texts or " books " of different ages used in the Jewish and Christian religions This article is about the academic treatment of the bible as a historical document Historical criticism or higher criticism is a branch of literary analysis that investigates the origins of a text as applied in Biblical studies it naturally Textual criticism (or lower criticism) is a branch of Literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of Transcription errors in Novum Testamentum Graece is the Latin name of the Greek language version of the New Testament. New Testament manuscripts are categorized into five groups This categorization scheme was introduced in 1981 by Kurt and Barbara Aland in Der Text des Neuen Testaments The synoptic problem concerns the literary relationships between and among the first three canonical gospels (the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and The historicity of the Bible addresses in what ways the Bible is historically accurate the extent to which it can be used as a historic source and what qualifications should For the movement associated with William F Albright and known as Biblical archaeology see Biblical archaeology school. Biblical hermeneutics refers to methods of interpreting the Bible. Pesher (pl pesharim) is a Hebrew word meaning "interpretation" in the sense of "solution" Midrash ( Hebrew: מדרש plural midrashim, lit "to repeat" is a Hebrew term referring to the not exact but comparative ( homiletic The Pardes typology describes four different approaches to Biblical Exegesis in rabbinic Judaism (or - simpler - interpretation of text in Allegorical interpretation is the approach which assigns a higher-than-literal interpretation to the contents of a text (eg Bible) Biblical literalism (also called Biblicism) is a primarily pejorative term referring to the adherence to an explicit and literal sense of the Bible. Bible prophecy, or " biblical prophecy " is the belief in prophecies in the Bible. Biblical inerrancy is the conservative evangelical doctrinal position that in its original form the Bible is totally without error and free from all contradiction Biblical infallibility is the theological term to describe the belief that the Bible is free from errors on issues of faith and practice while minor possible contradictions in history This article is about criticisms which are made against the Bible as a source of information or ethical guidance In Islam, the Bible is held to reflect true unfolding revelation from God but revelation which had become corrupted or distorted in its handing down (in Arabic The Qur'an, the central religious text of Islam, contains references to over fifty people also found in the Bible, typically in the same or similar This article discusses the relationship between Gnosticism and the New Testament. This article discusses the traditional views of the two religions and may not be applicable all adherents of each Biblical law in Christianity generally refers to a discussion as to what and how the biblical law applies in a Christian context. Literature is the Art of written works Literally translated the word means "acquaintance with letters" (from Latin littera letter Biblical studies is the academic study of the Judeo-Christian Bible and related texts Etymology According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word bible is from Latin biblia, traced from the same word through Medieval Latin and Late Latin In Classical studies, the new higher criticism of the nineteenth century set aside "efforts to fill ancient religion with direct meaning and relevance and devoted itself instead to the critical collection and chronological ordering of the source material,"^[1] Thus higher criticism, whether biblical, classical, Byzantine or medieval, focuses on the sources of a document to determine who wrote it, when it was written, and where. "Classical literature" redirects here For literature in Classical languages outside the Graeco-Roman sphere see Ancient literature. For example, higher criticism deals with the synoptic problem, the question of how Matthew, Mark, and Luke relate to each other. The synoptic problem concerns the literary relationships between and among the first three canonical gospels (the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and The Gospel of Matthew (Gk Κατά Ματθαίον Ευαγγέλιον is one of the four Canonical gospels in the New Testament and is a Synoptic gospel Content Authorship The gospel itself is anonymous but as early as Papias in the early 2nd century a text was attributed to Mark, a cousin The Gospel of Luke (Gk Κατά Λουκάν Ευαγγέλιον) is a synoptic Gospel, and is the third and longest of the four canonical Gospels of the In some cases, such as with several Pauline epistles, higher criticism confirms the traditional understanding of authorship. The Pauline epistles, Epistles of Paul, or Letters of Paul, are the thirteen New Testament books which have the name Paul (Παῦλος as the first In other cases, higher criticism contradicts church tradition (as with the gospels) or even the words of the Bible itself (as with 2 Peter). This article is about the canonical books of the New Testament The Second Epistle of Peter is a book of the New Testament of the Bible, traditionally ascribed to Saint Peter, but in modern times widely regarded as The documentary hypothesis, which attempts to chart the origins of the Torah, is another key issue in higher criticism. term " Torah " ( Hebrew: תּוֹרָה "teaching" or "instruction" sometimes translated as "Law" most commonly refers to

The Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus (1466? - 1536) is usually credited as the first to study the Bible in this light,^[2] although many of his methods are also found in the much earlier writing of Saint Augustine (354 - 430).

Higher criticism is used in contrast with Lower criticism (or textual criticism), the endeavour to determine what a text originally said before it was altered (through error or intent). Textual criticism (or lower criticism) is a branch of Literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of Transcription errors in Once lower critics have done their job and we have a good idea of what the original text looked like, higher critics can then compare this text with the writing of other authors.

Diagram of the Documentary Hypothesis.

*	includes most of Leviticus
†	includes most of Deuteronomy
‡	"Deuteronomic history": Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1& 2 Kings

Higher criticism treats the Bible as a text created by human beings at a particular historical time and for various human motives, in contrast with the treatment of the Bible as the inerrant word of God. Lower criticism is used for attempts to interpret Biblical texts based only on the internal evidence from the texts themselves.

As an example, consider the treatment of Noah's Ark in various editions of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Noah's Ark, according to the Book of Genesis (chapters 6-9 is the story of a large vessel built at God 's command to save Noah, his family The Encyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopaedia published by Encyclopædia Britannica Inc In the first edition, in 1771, the story of Noah and the Ark is treated as essentially factual, and the following scientific evidence is offered, ". . . Buteo and Kircher have proved geometrically, that, taking the common cubit as a foot and a half, the ark was abundantly sufficient for all the animals supposed to be lodged in it. Athanasius Kircher (sometimes erroneously spelled Kirchner) was a 17th century German Jesuit Scholar who published around 40 works most For the multi-touch interface see CUBIT (multi-touch. For the unit of information see Qubit. . . , the number of species of animals will be found much less than is generally imagined, not amounting to an hundred species of quadrupeds. Quadrupedalism (from Latin meaning "four legs" is a form of land animal locomotion using four legs. . . . " By the eighth edition, however, the encyclopedia says of the Noah story, "The insuperable difficulties connected with the belief that all other existing species of animals were provided for in the ark are obviated by adopting the suggestion of Bishop Stillingfleet, approved by Matthew Poole. Edward Stillingfleet ( April 17, 1635 – March 27, 1699) was a British theologian. Matthew Poole (1624 - 1679 English Nonconformist theologian, was born at York, and educated at Emmanuel College Cambridge. . . and others, that the Deluge did not extend beyond the region of the earth then inhabited. . . " By the ninth edition, in 1875, there is no attempt to reconcile the Noah story with scientific fact, and it is presented without comment. In the 1960 edition, in the article Ark, we find the following, "Before the days of "higher criticism" and the rise of the modern scientific views as to the origin of the species, there was much discussion among the learned, and many ingenious and curious theories were advanced, as to the number of animals on the ark. . . "^[3]

History of Higher criticism

The phrase "the higher criticism" became popular in Europe from the mid-18th century to the early 20th century, to describe the work of such scholars as Jean Astruc (mid-18th cent. Jean Astruc ( Sauves, Auvergne, March 19, 1684 - Paris, May 5, 1766) was a famous professor of medicine at ), Johann Salomo Semler (1725-91), Johann Gottfried Eichhorn (1752-1827), Ferdinand Christian Baur (1792-1860), and Julius Wellhausen (1844-1918). Johann Salomo Semler ( December 18, 1725 &ndash March 14, 1791) was a German church historian and biblical commentator Johann Gottfried Eichhorn ( October 16, 1752 - June 27, 1827) was a German Protestant theologian of Enlightenment and early Ferdinand Christian Baur ( June 21, 1792 - December 2, 1860) was a German theologian and leader of the Tübingen school Julius Wellhausen ( May 17, 1844 - January 7, 1918) was a German biblical scholar and Orientalist. ^[4] In academic circles today, this is the body of work properly considered "the higher criticism", though the phrase is sometimes applied to earlier or later work using similar methods.

Higher criticism originally referred to the work of German Biblical scholars, of the Tübingen School. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Ferdinand Christian Baur ( June 21, 1792 - December 2, 1860) was a German theologian and leader of the Tübingen school After the path-breaking work on the New Testament by Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834), the next generation which included scholars such as David Friedrich Strauss (1808–74) and Ludwig Feuerbach (1804–72) in the mid-nineteenth century analyzed the historical records of the Middle East from Christian and Old Testament times in search of independent confirmation of events related in the Bible. Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher (ˈʃlaɪɐmaxɐ ( November 21, 1768 &ndash February 12, 1834) was a German theologian David Friedrich Strauss (or Strauß; January 27 1808 &ndash February 8 1874 was a German theologian and writer Ludwig Andreas von Feuerbach ( July 28, 1804 &ndash September 13, 1872) was a German Philosopher and Anthropologist Etymology According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word bible is from Latin biblia, traced from the same word through Medieval Latin and Late Latin These latter scholars built on the tradition of Enlightenment and Rationalist thinkers such as John Locke, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Gotthold Lessing, Gottlieb Fichte, Georg Hegel and the French rationalists. The Age of Enlightenment or The Enlightenment is a term used to describe a phase in Western philosophy and cultural life centered upon the eighteenth century In Epistemology and in its broadest sense rationalism is "any view appealing to Reason as a source of knowledge or justification" (Lacey 286 John Locke (29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704 was an English Philosopher. David Hume (26 April 1711 25 August 1776 Scottish Philosopher, Economist, and Historian is an important figure in Western philosophy Immanuel Kant (ɪmanuəl kant 22 April 1724 12 February 1804 was an 18th-century German Philosopher from the Prussian city of Königsberg Gotthold Ephraim Lessing ( 22 January, 1729 15 February, 1781) was a German Writer, Philosopher, Dramatist Johann Gottlieb Fichte ( May 19, 1762 – January 27, 1814) was a German philosopher In Epistemology and in its broadest sense rationalism is "any view appealing to Reason as a source of knowledge or justification" (Lacey 286

These ideas were imported to England by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and, in particular, by George Eliot's translations of Strauss's life of Jesus (1846) and Feuerbach's The Essence of Christianity (1854). England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Samuel Taylor Coleridge ( 21 October 1772 &ndash 25 July 1834) was an English Poet, Critic and philosopher Mary Ann (Marian Evans ( 22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880) better known by her Pen name George Eliot, was an Jesus of Nazareth (7–2 BC / BCE —26–36 AD / CE) The Essence of Christianity ( Das Wesen des Christentums) is a book written by Ludwig Feuerbach and first published in 1841. In 1860 seven liberal Anglican theologians began the process of incorporating this historical criticism into Christian doctrine in Essays and Reviews, causing a five year storm of controversy which completely overshadowed the arguments over Darwin's newly published On the Origin of Species. For liberal political views within Christianity see Christian left. Anglicanism is a tradition of Christian faith Churches in this tradition either have historical connections to the Church of England or have similar beliefs Essays and Reviews, published in March 1860 is a broad-church volume of seven Essays on Religion. Charles Robert Darwin (February 12 1809 &ndash April 19 1882 was an English naturalist, who realised and demonstrated that all Species of life Charles Darwin 's On the Origin of Species (published 24 November 1859) is a seminal work in Scientific literature and arguably the Two of the authors were indicted for heresy and lost their jobs by 1862, but in 1864 had the judgement overturned on appeal. La Vie de Jésus (1863), the seminal work by a Frenchman, Ernest Renan (1823–92), continued in the same tradition as Strauss and Feuerbach. Ernest Renan ( February 28, 1823 &ndash October 12, 1892) was a French Philosopher and writer deeply attached to his native In Catholicism, L'Evangile et l'Eglise (1902), the magnum opus by Alfred Loisy against the Essence of Christianity of Adolf von Harnack and La Vie de Jesus of Renan, gave birth to the modernist crisis (1902–61). Alfred Firmin Loisy ( 28 February 1857 - 1 June 1940)was a French Roman Catholic priest professor and theologian Adolf von Harnack ( May 7, 1851 &ndash June 10, 1930) was a German theologian and prominent church historian Modernism in the Roman Catholic Church is a theological viewpoint that usually includes a rationalist approach to the Bible, Secularism and modern Some scholars, such as Rudolf Bultmann, have used higher criticism of the Bible to "demythologize" it. Rudolf Karl Bultmann ( August 20, 1884 – July 30, 1976) was a German theologian of Lutheran background who The word mythology (from the Greek grc μυθολογία mythología, meaning "a story-telling a legendary lore"

Theological responses

The questions of higher criticism are widely recognized by Orthodox Jews and many traditional Christians as legitimate questions, yet they often find the answers given by the higher critics unsatisfactory or even heretical. Orthodox Judaism is the formulation of Judaism that adheres to a relatively strict interpretation and application of the laws and ethics first canonized Christianity ( Greek Χριστιανισμός from the word Xριστός ( Christ)is a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings Heresy is an introduced change to some system of belief especially a religion that conflicts with the previously established canon of that belief In particular, religious conservatives object to the rationalistic and naturalistic presuppositions of a large number of practitioners of higher criticism that lead to conclusions that conservative religionists find unacceptable. In Epistemology and in its broadest sense rationalism is "any view appealing to Reason as a source of knowledge or justification" (Lacey 286 Philosophical naturalism has been described in various ways In its broadest and strongest sense naturalism is the metaphysical position that "nature is all there is Nonetheless, conservative Bible scholars practice their own form of higher criticism within their supernaturalist and confessional frameworks. In contrast, other biblical scholars believe that the evidence uncovered by higher criticism undermines such confessional frameworks. In addition, religiously liberal Christians and religiously liberal Jews typically maintain that belief in God has nothing to do with the authorship of the Pentateuch. For liberal political views within Christianity see Christian left. term " Torah " ( Hebrew: תּוֹרָה "teaching" or "instruction" sometimes translated as "Law" most commonly refers to

Roman Catholic view

Pope Leo XIII (1810 - 1903) condemned secular biblical scholarship in his encyclical Providentissimus Deus;^[5], but in 1943 Pope Pius XII gave license to the new scholarship in his encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu: "[T]extual criticism . Pope Leo XIII ( March 2, 1810 – July 20, 1903) born Count Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci, was the 256th Pope Providentissimus Deus, "On the Study of Holy Scripture " was an Encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII on 18 November Pope Divino Afflante Spiritu is an Encyclical letter issued by Pope Pius XII on September 30, 1943. . . [is] quite rightly employed in the case of the Sacred Books . . . Let the interpreter then, with all care and without neglecting any light derived from recent research, endeavor to determine the peculiar character and circumstances of the sacred writer, the age in which he lived, the sources written or oral to which he had recourse and the forms of expression he employed. " ^[6] Today the modern Catechism states: "#110 In order to discover the sacred authors' intention, the reader must take into account the conditions of their time and culture, the literary genres in use at that time, and the modes of feeling, speaking and narrating then current. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, or CCC, is an official exposition of the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church and the twenty-two For the fact is that truth is differently presented and expressed in the various types of historical writing, in prophetical and poetical texts, and in other forms of literary expression. "

Protestant Christian view

Martin Luther, leader of the Protestant Reformation, believed strongly in the literal truth of scripture. Martin Luther (November 10 1483 February 18 1546 was a German Monk, theologian, university professor Father of Protestantism, and church reformer The Protestant Reformation was a reform movement in Europe that began in 1517 though its roots lie further back in time He wrote, "All the articles of our Christian faith, which God has revealed to us in His Word, are in presence of reason sheerly impossible, absurd and false. " But at other times, he accepted the authority of reason, so long as it did not contradict scripture. "Unless I am convicted by the testimony of Sacred Scripture or by evident reason. . . my conscience is captive to the Word of God. " He even used some of the methods that would later be called "higher criticism" in his study of the Bible. He wrote, "The discourses of the Prophets were none of them regularly committed to writing at the time; their disciples and hearers collected them subsequently. . . . Solomon's Proverbs were not the work of Solomon. "^[7]

Around the end of the 18th century Johann Gottfried Eichhorn, "the founder of modern Old Testament criticism", produced works of "investigation of the inner nature of the Old Testament with the help of the Higher Criticism". Johann Gottfried Eichhorn ( October 16, 1752 - June 27, 1827) was a German Protestant theologian of Enlightenment and early Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher also influenced the development of Higher Criticism. Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher (ˈʃlaɪɐmaxɐ ( November 21, 1768 &ndash February 12, 1834) was a German theologian

A group of German biblical scholars at Tübingen University formed the Tübingen school of theology under the leadership of Ferdinand Christian Baur, with important works being produced by Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach and David Strauss. Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen ( German: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, sometimes called the "Eberhardina Carolina" is a public university Ferdinand Christian Baur ( June 21, 1792 - December 2, 1860) was a German theologian and leader of the Tübingen school Ludwig Andreas von Feuerbach ( July 28, 1804 &ndash September 13, 1872) was a German Philosopher and Anthropologist David Friedrich Strauss (or Strauß; January 27 1808 &ndash February 8 1874 was a German theologian and writer In the early 19th century they sought independent confirmation of the events related in the Bible through Hegelian analysis of the historical records of the Middle East from Christian and Old Testament times. ^[8][9]

Their ideas were brought to England by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, then in 1846 George Eliot translated David Strauss's sensational Leben Jesu as the Life of Jesus Critically Examined, a quest for the historical Jesus. Samuel Taylor Coleridge ( 21 October 1772 &ndash 25 July 1834) was an English Poet, Critic and philosopher Mary Ann (Marian Evans ( 22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880) better known by her Pen name George Eliot, was an This article is about the history of academic Jesus research For the book "The Quest of the Historical Jesus A Critical Study of Its Progress from Reimarus to Wrede" In 1854 she followed this with a translation of Feuerbach's even more radical Essence of Christianity which held that the idea of God was created by man to express the divine within himself, though Strauss attracted most of the controversy. ^[8] The loose grouping of Broad Churchmen in the Church of England was influenced by the German higher critics. Broad Church is a term referring to Latitudinarian Churchmanship in the Church of England, in particular and Anglicanism, in general The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England, the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican In particular, Benjamin Jowett visited Germany and studied the work of Baur in the 1840s, then in 1866 published his book on The Epistles of St Paul, arousing theological opposition. Benjamin Jowett (April 15 1817 – October 1 1893 was an English scholar Classicist and theologian, and Master of Balliol College Oxford He then collaborated with six other theologians to publish their Essays and Reviews in 1860. Essays and Reviews, published in March 1860 is a broad-church volume of seven Essays on Religion. The central essay was Jowett's On the Interpretation of Scripture which argued that the Bible should be studied to find the authors' original meaning in their own context rather than expecting it to provide a modern scientific text. ^[10][11]

Today, some Protestants oppose the methods of the higher criticism, and hold that the Bible is divinely inspired and incapable of error, at least in its original form. ^[12]

Types of higher criticism

Source criticism: diagram of the two-source hypothesis, an explanation for the relationship of the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. This entry is about Source evaluation (or information evaluation) in an interdisciplinary context and thus not limited to some discipline-specific understanding of The Two-Source Hypothesis (or 2SH is an explanation for the relationship between the three Gospels of Matthew Mark and Luke

Higher criticism is divided up into sub-categories, including primarily source criticism, form criticism, and redaction criticism.

Source criticism

Main article: Source criticism

Source criticism is the search for the original sources which lie behind a given biblical text. This entry is about Source evaluation (or information evaluation) in an interdisciplinary context and thus not limited to some discipline-specific understanding of It can be traced back to the 17th century French priest Richard Simon, and its most influential product is undoubtably Julius Wellhausen's Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels (1878), whose "insight and clarity of expression have left their mark indelibly on modern biblical studies. Richard Simon ( 13 May 1638 - 11 April 1712) was a French biblical Critic. Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels ( Prolegomena to the History of Israel) is a book by German biblical scholar Julius Wellhausen (1844-1918 which formulated "^[13]

Redaction criticism

Main article: Redaction Criticism

Redaction criticism studies "the collection, arrangement, editing and modification of sources", and is frequently used to reconstruct the community and purposes of the author/s of the text. Redaction Criticism, also called Redaktionsgeschichte, Kompositionsgeschichte, or Redaktionstheologie, is a critical method for the study of Bible ^[14]

Form criticism and tradition history

Main article: Form criticism

Form criticism breaks the Bible down into sections (pericopes, stories) which are analyzed and categorized by genres (prose or verse, letters, laws, court archives, war hymns, poems of lament, etc). Form criticism is a method of biblical criticism that classifies units of scripture by literary pattern (such as parables or legends and that attempts to trace each type to its period The form critic then theorizes on the pericope's Sitz im Leben ("setting in life"), the setting in which it was composed and, especially, used. ^[15] Tradition history is a specific aspect of form criticism which aims at tracing the way in which the pericopes entered the larger units of the biblical canon, and especially the way in which they made the transition from oral to written form. Tradition history or criticism is a methodology of Biblical criticism that was developed by Hermann Gunkel. The belief in the priority, stability, and even detectability, of oral traditions is now recognised to be so deeply questionable as to render tradition history largely useless, but form criticism itself continues to develop as a viable methodolgy in biblical studies. ^[16]

Radical criticism

Main article: Radical Criticism

Radical Criticism, around the end of the nineteenth century, typically tried to show that none of the Pauline epistles are authentic; that Paul is nothing but a controverted authorial token. Radical Criticism is a movement around the late 1800s that typically tried to show that none of the Pauline epistles are authentic The Pauline epistles, Epistles of Paul, or Letters of Paul, are the thirteen New Testament books which have the name Paul (Παῦλος as the first This group of scholars often postulated the ahistoricity of Jesus and the apostles.

Findings of higher criticism

Scholars of higher criticism have sometimes upheld and sometimes challenged the traditional authorship of various books of the Bible.

Old Testament

New Testament

Higher criticism of other religious texts

Both higher and lower forms of criticism are carried out today with the religious writings of many religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism. The Book of Jeremiah, or Jeremiah ( יִרְמְיָהוּ Yirməyāhū in Hebrew) is part of the Hebrew Bible, Judaism Jeremiah ( jirmɛ'jahu; Septuagint Greek: Ἰερεμίας was one of the 'greater prophets ' of the Hebrew Bible. Baruch ben Neriah (c 6th century BCE) was the Scribe, disciple secretary and devoted friend of the Biblical Prophet Jeremiah The Book of Lamentations (אֵיכָה Eikha, ʾēḫā(h is a book of the Bible Old Testament and Jewish Tanakh. Jeremiah ( jirmɛ'jahu; Septuagint Greek: Ἰερεμίας was one of the 'greater prophets ' of the Hebrew Bible. The Lament for Ur is a Sumerian Lament composed after the fall of Ur to the Elamites and the end of the city's third dynasty The Letter of Jeremiah, also known as the Epistle of Jeremy is a Deuterocanonical (or apocryphal) book of the Old Testament; this letter purports to have Jeremiah ( jirmɛ'jahu; Septuagint Greek: Ἰερεμίας was one of the 'greater prophets ' of the Hebrew Bible. This article focuses on the cultural aspects of the Hellenistic age for the historical aspects see Hellenistic period. PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ Alexandria ( Egyptian Arabic: اسكندريه Eskendereyya; Standard Arabic: ar الإسكندرية Al-Iskandariyya; Ἀλεξάνδρεια The Book of Baruch, occasionally referred to as 1 Baruch, is called a deuterocanonical or apocryphal book of the Bible. Baruch ben Neriah (c 6th century BCE) was the Scribe, disciple secretary and devoted friend of the Biblical Prophet Jeremiah The Maccabees ( Hebrew: מכבים or מקבים, Makabim or Maqabim; Greek Μακκαβαῖοι, /makav'εï/ were The Book of Ezekiel is a book of the Hebrew Bible (of the Books of the Bible) named after the prophet Ezekiel. According to religious texts Ezekiel ((יְחֶזְקֵאל Yehezkel, jəx The Book of Daniel (דניאל, originally written in Hebrew and Aramaic, is a Book in both the Hebrew Bible ( Tanakh) and the Christian Daniel (; Persian: دانيال, Dâniyal or Danial, also Dani, داني; Arabic: دانيال The Book of Hosea is one of the books of the Hebrew Bible and of the Christian Old Testament. Hosea ( Greek = Ōsēe) was the son of Beeri and a prophet in Israel in the 8th century BCE He is one of the Twelve Prophets The Book of Joel is part of the Jewish Tanakh, and also the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. See also Book of Joel. Alternative spelling Yole Joel (יואל was a prophet of ancient Israel whose prophecies are recorded in the The Book of Amos is one of the books of the Nevi'im (Hebrew "prophets" and of the Christian Old Testament. … Amos ( is one of the twelve Minor prophets in the Hebrew Bible, and putative author of the speeches reported in the Book of Amos. The Book of Obadiah is found in both the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, where it is the shortest book only one chapter long Obadiah is a Biblical theophorical name meaning " Yahweh 's servant/worshipper In the Hebrew Bible, the Book of Jonah is the fifth book in a series of books called the Minor Prophets According to the Hebrew Bible ( Tanakh / Old Testament) and Qur'an, Jonah (; Arabic: يونس, Yunus or The Book of Micah (Hebrew ספר מיכה is one of the books of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament, traditionally attributed to Micah the Micah the titular prophet of the Book of Micah, also called "The Morasthite" The book of Nahum is a book in the Bible 's Old Testament and Jewish Tanakh. Nahum ( Hebrew: נַחוּם Naḥūm) was a Minor prophet whose prophecy is recorded in the Hebrew Bible. The Book of Habakkuk is the eighth book of the 12 Minor prophets of the Hebrew Bible. Habakkuk or Havakuk ( Hebrew: חֲבַקּוּק, Standard Ḥavaqquq Tiberian Ḥăḇaqqûq The superscription of the Book of Zephaniah attributes its authorship to “Zephaniah son of Cushi son of Gedaliah son of Amariah son of Hezekiah, in the days of King {For|the prophetic book|Book of Zephaniah} Zephaniah or Tzfanya ( is the name of several people in the Bible Old Testament and Jewish Tanakh The Book of Haggai is a book of the Tanakh ( Hebrew Bible) and of the Old Testament, written by the prophet Haggai. Haggai ( Hebrew: חַגַּי, Ḥaggay or "Hag-i" Greek: Αγγαίος) was one of the twelve Minor prophets The Book of Zechariah is a book of the Bible Old Testament and Jewish Tanakh attributed to the Prophet Zechariah. Zechariah was a person in the Hebrew Bible ( Jewish Tanakh and Christian Old Testament) Malachi (or Malachias מַלְאָכִי Malʾaḫi Mál'akhî is a book of the Bible Old Testament and Jewish Tanakh, written by the prophet Malachi or Mal'achi ( was a Prophet in the Bible, the Christian Old Testament and Jewish Tanakh. Ezra ( was a Jewish Priestly Scribe who led about 5000 Israelite exiles living in Babylon to their home city of Jerusalem Content Authorship The gospel itself is anonymous but as early as Papias in the early 2nd century a text was attributed to Mark, a cousin "Saint Mark" redirects here For other uses see Saint Mark (disambiguation. The Gospel of Matthew (Gk Κατά Ματθαίον Ευαγγέλιον is one of the four Canonical gospels in the New Testament and is a Synoptic gospel Matthew the Evangelist (מתי/מתתיהו "Gift of Yahweh " Standard Hebrew and Tiberian Hebrew: Mattay or Mattithyahu Content Authorship The gospel itself is anonymous but as early as Papias in the early 2nd century a text was attributed to Mark, a cousin The 1st century was the Century that lasted from 1 to 100 according the Julian calendar. The Gospel of Luke (Gk Κατά Λουκάν Ευαγγέλιον) is a synoptic Gospel, and is the third and longest of the four canonical Gospels of the Luke the Evangelist ( Hebrew: לוּקָֻא Greek: Loukás) was an early Christian leader who is said by tradition to be the author of Content Authorship The gospel itself is anonymous but as early as Papias in the early 2nd century a text was attributed to Mark, a cousin The 1st century was the Century that lasted from 1 to 100 according the Julian calendar. The Gospel of John (literally According to John; Greek, Κατὰ Ἰωάννην Kata Iōannēn) is the fourth Gospel in the canon Saint John the Evangelist (d ca 110 יוחנן " The LORD is merciful" Standard Hebrew Yoḥanan, Tiberian Hebrew The historical Jesus is Jesus of Nazareth as reconstructed by historians using Historical methods These historical methods use critical The chapter John 21 in the Bible contains an account of the post- Resurrection appearance in Galilee, which the text describes as the third time The Acts of the Apostles is a book of the Bible, which now stands fifth in the New Testament. Luke the Evangelist ( Hebrew: לוּקָֻא Greek: Loukás) was an early Christian leader who is said by tradition to be the author of The Gospel of Luke (Gk Κατά Λουκάν Ευαγγέλιον) is a synoptic Gospel, and is the third and longest of the four canonical Gospels of the The Epistle of St Paul the Apostle to the Romans is one of the letters of the New Testament canon of the Christian Bible. The First Epistle to the Corinthians is a book of the Bible in the New Testament. The Second Epistle to the Corinthians is a book in the New Testament, written by Paul the Apostle. The Epistle to the Galatians is a book of the New Testament. It is a letter from Paul of Tarsus to a number of early Christian communities in the Roman province of The Epistle to the Philippians (or simply Philippians) is a Book included in the New Testament of the Bible. The First Epistle to the Thessalonians, also known as the First Letter to the Thessalonians, is a book from the New Testament of the Christian Bible The Epistle to Philemon is a prison letter from Paul of Tarsus to Philemon, a leader in the Colossian church. Paul the apostle (שאול התרסי Šaʾul HaTarsi, meaning " Saul of Tarsus " Σαούλ Saul and Σαῦλος Saulos and The Pauline epistles, Epistles of Paul, or Letters of Paul, are the thirteen New Testament books which have the name Paul (Παῦλος as the first Described by William Barclay as the "Queen of the Epistles" the Epistle to the Ephesians is one of the books of the Bible in the New Paul the apostle (שאול התרסי Šaʾul HaTarsi, meaning " Saul of Tarsus " Σαούλ Saul and Σαῦλος Saulos and The Epistle to the Colossians is a book of the Bible New Testament. Paul the apostle (שאול התרסי Šaʾul HaTarsi, meaning " Saul of Tarsus " Σαούλ Saul and Σαῦλος Saulos and For other uses of "Timothy" see Timothy (disambiguation. The Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, also known as the Second Letter to the Thessalonians, is a book from the New Testament of the Christian Bible Paul the apostle (שאול התרסי Šaʾul HaTarsi, meaning " Saul of Tarsus " Σαούλ Saul and Σαῦλος Saulos and The First Epistle to Timothy is one of three letters in New Testament of the Bible often grouped together as the Pastoral Epistles. The Second Epistle to Timothy is one of the three Pastoral Epistles, traditionally attributed to Saint Paul, and is part of the canonical New Testament The Epistle to Titus is one of the Pastoral Epistles. The Epistle to Titus is a book of the canonic New Testament, one of the The three pastoral epistles are books of the canonical New Testament: the First Epistle to Timothy ( 1 Timothy) the Paul the apostle (שאול התרסי Šaʾul HaTarsi, meaning " Saul of Tarsus " Σαούλ Saul and Σαῦλος Saulos and Pseudepigrapha (from Ancient Greek ψευδής The Pauline epistles are the thirteen books in the New Testament traditionally attributed to and explicitly ascribed to Paul of Tarsus. The Epistle to the Hebrews (abbr Heb for Citations is one of the books in the New Testament. Paul the apostle (שאול התרסי Šaʾul HaTarsi, meaning " Saul of Tarsus " Σαούλ Saul and Σαῦλος Saulos and The Epistle of James is a book in the Christian New Testament. Saint James the Just ( Hebrew: יעקב or Jacob ( Greek Iάκωβος (died 62AD also known as James of Jerusalem, James Adelphotheos The First Epistle of Peter is a book of the New Testament. It has traditionally been held to have been written by Saint Peter the apostle during his time as Bishop Pseudepigrapha (from Ancient Greek ψευδής Saint Silas or Saint Silvanus (flourished 1st century was a leading member of the first Christian community in Jerusalem and later became a companion The Second Epistle of Peter is a book of the New Testament of the Bible, traditionally ascribed to Saint Peter, but in modern times widely regarded as Pseudepigrapha (from Ancient Greek ψευδής The First Epistle of John is a book of the New Testament, and is the fourth catholic or "general" Epistles. Saint John the Evangelist (d ca 110 יוחנן " The LORD is merciful" Standard Hebrew Yoḥanan, Tiberian Hebrew The historical Jesus is Jesus of Nazareth as reconstructed by historians using Historical methods These historical methods use critical The Gospel of John (literally According to John; Greek, Κατὰ Ἰωάννην Kata Iōannēn) is the fourth Gospel in the canon The 1st century was the Century that lasted from 1 to 100 according the Julian calendar. The Second Epistle of John (often simply called 2nd John or II John) is a book in the Christian Holy Scriptures, the authorship of The New Testament Third Epistle of John (often referred to as 3 John) written in the form of an Epistle, is the 64th book of the Bible. Saint John the Apostle ( Greek Ιωάννης, see Names of John) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. The historical Jesus is Jesus of Nazareth as reconstructed by historians using Historical methods These historical methods use critical The chapter John 21 in the Bible contains an account of the post- Resurrection appearance in Galilee, which the text describes as the third time The brief Epistle of Jude is the penultimate book in the Christian New Testament canon. Saint Jude was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. He is generally identified with Thaddeus, and is also variously called Jude of James Jude (alternatively Judas or Judah) is the third of the brothers of Jesus appearing in the New Testament. A pseudonym is a fictitious alternative to a person's legal name (see Alias) The 1st century was the Century that lasted from 1 to 100 according the Julian calendar. The Book of Revelation, also called Revelation to John, Apocalypse of John ( pronounced, from the Ἀποκάλυψις Ἰωάννου Saint John the Apostle ( Greek Ιωάννης, see Names of John) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. John of Patmos is the name given to the author of the Book of Revelation (or Book of the Apocalypse) in the New Testament. Scholars have debated the authorship of the Johannine works ( Gospel of John, the first, second, and third epistles of John, and the Book Hinduism is a religious tradition that originated in the Indian subcontinent. Buddhism is a family of beliefs and practices Confucianism ( is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system originally developed from the teachings of the fifth century B

Qur'an

Modern higher criticism is just beginning for the Qur'an. The Qur’an ( القرآن, literally "the recitation" also sometimes transliterated as Qur’ān, Koran, Alcoran This scholarship questions some traditional claims about its composition and content, contending that the Qur'an incorporates material from both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament; however, other scholars argue that it cites examples from previous texts, as the New Testament did to the Old Testament. See also Old testament, Septuagint, Targum, Peshitta The Tanakh (תַּנַ"ךְ (taˈnax or; also Tenakh or Tenak is For example, Islamic history records that Uthman collected all variants of the Qur'an and destroyed those that he did not approve of. Early life Uthman was born in Ta’if, which is situated on a hill and the presumption is that Uthman was born during the summer months since wealthy Meccans

Further information: Origin and development of the Qur'an

See also

• Biblical criticism
• Textual criticism (lower criticism)
• Documentary hypothesis
• Synoptic Problem
• Historical-grammatical
• Historical-grammatical method
• Biblical genres
• Misquoting Jesus

History of higher criticism

• Alexander Geddes
• Edwin Johnson (historian)

References

• Gerald P. The study of the origins and development of the Qur’an can be said to fall into two major schools of thought the first being a Traditionalist Muslim view and This article is about the academic treatment of the bible as a historical document Textual criticism (or lower criticism) is a branch of Literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of Transcription errors in The synoptic problem concerns the literary relationships between and among the first three canonical gospels (the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and The historical-grammatical method also referred to as grammatico-historical or grammatical-critical, is a component of Biblical hermeneutics that The historical-grammatical method also referred to as grammatico-historical or grammatical-critical, is a component of Biblical hermeneutics that A Biblical Genre is a classification of Bible literature according to Literary genre. Misquoting Jesus The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why is a book by Bart D Alexander Geddes ( September 14, 1737 &ndash February 26, 1802) was a Scottish theologian and scholar Edwin Johnson (1842-1901 English Historian, is best known for his radical criticisms of Christian Historiography, continuing scholarship Fogarty, S. J. American Catholic Biblical Scholarship: A History from the Early Republic to Vatican II, Harper & Row, San Francisco, 1989, ISBN 0-06-062666-6. Nihil obstat by Raymond E. Brown, S. S. , and Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S. J.

External links

• Rutgers University: Synoptic Gospels Primer: introduction to the history of literary analysis of the Greek gospels, and aids in confronting the range of factors that need to be taken into consideration in accounting for the literary relationship of the first three gospels.
• Journal of Higher Criticism
• From the Divine Oracle to Higher Criticism
• Catholic Encyclopedia article "Biblical Criticism (Higher)"
• Dictionary of the history of Ideas - Modernism and the Church
• Teaching Bible based on Higher Criticism
• "Historical Criticism and the Evangelical" by Grant Osborne
• "From the Divine Oracle to Higher Criticism" from The Warfare of Science With Theology by Andrew White, 1896
• Catholic Encyclopedia article (1908) "Biblical Criticism (Higher)"
• Dictionary of the history of Ideas: Modernism in the Christian Church

Notes