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Historical criticism as applied in biblical studies, is a branch of literary analysis that investigates the origins of a text, especially the books of the Bible. Higher criticism, in particular, focuses on the sources of a document to determine who wrote it, when it was written, and where. For example, higher criticism deals with the synoptic problem, the question of how Matthew, Mark, and Luke relate to each other. In some cases, such as with several Pauline epistles, higher criticism confirms the traditional understanding of authorship. 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 term 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).

Contents 1 Higher criticism and radical criticism 2 Reception of higher criticism by religious adherents 3 Higher criticism of other religious texts 4 Islam 5 Findings of higher criticism 6 See also 6.1 Types of higher criticism 6.2 History of higher criticism 7 External links

Higher criticism originally referred to the work of German Biblical scholars, 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. 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.

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 Essence of Christianity (1854). 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. 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. 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). Some scholars, such as Rudolf Bultmann, have used higher criticism of the Bible to "demythologize" it.

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. This group of scholars often postulated the ahistoricity of Jesus and the apostles.

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. 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. 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.

Both higher and lower forms of criticism are carried out today with the religious writings of many religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism.

Modern higher criticism is just beginning for the Qur'an. 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. For example, Islamic history records that Uthman collected all variants of the Qur'an and destroyed those that he did not approve of.

Further information: Origin and development of the Qur'an

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

Books of the Bible	Traditional attribution	Findings of scholars
Torah (Pentateuch, Books of Moses)	Moses, c 1300 BC	Documentary hypothesis (Wellhausen and others): Four originally independent sources composed between 900-550 BC, redacted c 440 BC, possibly by Ezra; Biblical minimalism: No original source documents, Torah composed in Hasmonean times, c 140 BC.
Gospel of Mark	Mark, secretary to Peter; mid 1st century	anonymous, mid to late 1st century
Gospel of Matthew	The Apostle Matthew	anonymous, late 1st century
Gospel of Luke, Acts of the Apostles	Luke, companion of Paul	anonymous, same author for both, late 1st century
Gospel of John, 1 John	Apostle John	anonymous, late 1st century
1 John, 2 John, 3 John	Apostle John (sometimes disputed)	possibly same author for all, c 100-110
Book of Revelation	John the Apostle (sometimes disputed)	distinct author (not the same as the Gospel of John or 2 & 3 John)
Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, Epistle to Philemon	Saint Paul, see Pauline epistles	Paul
Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians	Saint Paul	no consensus
1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, see Pastoral epistles	Saint Paul	pseudepigraphal
Epistle to the Hebrews	Paul (disputed)	anonymous, c 95
1 Peter	Apostle Peter, before 64 (Peter's martyrdom)	pseudepigraphal, 70-90
2 Peter	Apostle Peter, before 64	pseudepigraphal, perhaps as late as c 150 AD, the last-written book of the Bible

• Biblical criticism
• Biblical genres
• Documentary hypothesis
• Historical-grammatical

• Form criticism
• Narrative criticism
• Linguistic Criticism
• Radical Criticism
• Redaction criticism
• Rhetorical criticism
• Socio-historical criticism
• Source criticism

• Alexander Geddes
• Edwin Johnson (historian)

• 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 (pdf file)

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