Biblical Criticism

Dan Fefferman

This article is about the academic treatment of the bible as a historical document. This is not the same thing as Criticism of the Bible, which is where criticisms are made against the Bible as a source of reliable information or ethical guidance.

Biblical criticism is a form of historical criticism that seeks to analyze the Bible through asking certain questions of the text, such as; Who wrote it, when was it written, to whom was it written, why was it written, what was the historical, geographical and cultural setting of the text, how well preserved is the original text, how unified is the text, what sources were used by the author, how was the text transmitted over time, what is the text's genre and from what sociological setting is it derived, when and how did it come to become part of the Bible? What passed for ancient history was at times uncritical, predjudiced and many times just copied from an earlier writer. Historical criticism can not determine if the events that are recorded in the Bible are entirely accurate or clothed with material from another time such as myth, theology or tradition. ^{[citation needed]} It is evident that in Biblical literature the authors were comfortable with teaching theology in story form.

Biblical criticism has been traditionally divided into textual criticism, also called lower criticism, that seeks to establish the original text out of the variant readings of ancient manuscripts, and higher criticism that focuses on identifying the author, date, and place of writing for each book of the Bible. In the twentieth-century a number of specific critical methodologies have been developed to address such questions in greater depth.

Prior to attempting far-reaching conclusions based upon redaction criticism, it is essential that a very thorough investigation of the historical questions is conducted including taking note of archaelogy.

History of Biblical criticism

A historical overview can be found in the article on the documentary hypothesis. The article on higher criticism is also useful.

Other useful articles are:

• Ancient history
• Andreas Karlstadt
• Thomas Hobbes
• Isaac de la Peyrère
• Baruch Spinoza (collected discrepencies, contradictions, anachronisms etc from the Torah to show that it couldnot have been written by Moses)
• Richard Simon (the Bible consists of numerous archival documents that were rather artificially combined by editors without any addition or intervention in the text)
• John Hampden
• Jean Astruc (adapted the methods used by Classics scholars to analyse the Oddyssey etc. to refute Spinoza and others by identifying original source-texts used by Moses, but inadvertently began the development of the documentary hypothesis)
• Johann Gottfried Eichhorn
• Wilhelm Martin Leberecht de Wette
• Friedrich Schleiermacher
• David Friedrich Strauss
• Ludwig Feuerbach
• F. C. Baur
• Julius Wellhausen (presented influential syntheses of the documentary hypothesis and the evolution of Judaism based on biblical texts)
• Albert Schweitzer
• Herman Gunkel
• Albrecht Alt
• Martin Noth
• William Albright
• Rolf Rendtorff
• Thomas L. Thompson
• Yehezkel Kauffman
• John Van Seters (rejects the documentary hypothesis and the concept of redaction; favours a supplementary hypothesis for the creation of biblical texts)
• Niels Peter Lemche (representative of biblical minimalsm, the bible as a very late composition, c. 400-100 B.C.E.)
• Richard Elliott Friedman (revised and updated the documentary hypothesis in answer to increasing criticism)
• Harold Bloom ("The Book of J": a reconstruction of the Jahwist source according to the documentary hypothesis)

Types of Biblical criticism

• Textual criticism
• Higher criticism
• Source criticism
• Documentary hypothesis
• Form criticism
• Redaction criticism
• Socio-historical criticism
• Rhetorical criticism
• Narrative criticism
• Tradition history
• Psychological Biblical Criticism
• Linguistic Criticism
• Canonical Criticism

See also

• Biblical studies
• Internal consistency of the Bible
• Science and the Bible
• The Bible and history
• Biblical archaeology
• The Gospel of Mark
• 40th century B.C.E.

Further reading

• Barton, John (1984). Reading the Old Testament: Method in Biblical Study, Philadelphia, Westminster, ISBN 0-664-25724-0.
• Birch, Bruce C., Walter Brueggemann, Terence E. Fretheim, and David L. Petersen (1999). A Theological Introduction to the Old Testament, ISBN 0-687-01348-8. 
• Coggins, R. J., and J. L. Houlden, eds. (1990). Dictionary of Biblical Interpretation. London: SCM Press; Philadelphia: Trinity Press International. ISBN 0-334-00294-X. 
• Ehrman, Bart D. (2005). Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why. HarperSanFrancisco. ISBN 0-06-073817-0. 

• Fuller, Reginald H. (1965). The Foundations of New Testament Christology. Scribners. ISBN 0-684-15532-X. 
• Goldingay, John (1990). Approaches to Old Testament Interpretation. Rev. ed. Downers Grove, IL, InterVarsity, ISBN 1-894667-18-2.
• Hayes, John H., and Carl R. Holladay (1987). Biblical Exegesis: A Beginner's Handbook, Rev. ed. Atlanta, GA, John Knox, ISBN 0-8042-0031-9.
• Knight, Douglas A., and Gene M. Tucker, eds. (1993). To Each Its Own Meaning: An Introduction to Biblical Criticisms and Their Applications, Louisville, KY, Westminster/John Knox, ISBN 0-664-25784-4.
• Morgan, Robert, and John Barton (1988). Biblical Interpretation, New York, Oxford University, ISBN 0-19-213257-1.
• Soulen, Richard N. (1981). Handbook of Biblical Criticism, 2nd ed. Atlanta, Ga, John Knox, ISBN 0-664-22314-1.
• Stuart, Douglas (1984). Old Testament Exegesis: A Primer for Students and Pastors, 2nd ed., Philadelphia, Westminster, ISBN 0-664-24320-7.

• Shinan, Avigdir, and Yair Zakovitch (2004). That's Not What the Good Book Says, Miskal-Yediot Ahronot Books and Chemed Books, Tel-Aviv

External links

• PDF Teaching Bible from the point of view of Biblical criticism.
• A good introduction at Theopedia
• History of Jewish Secular Thought, Chapter 4: Bible, from Oberlin College Jewish studies program.

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

• Biblical Criticism  ^history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

• History of "Biblical Criticism"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.