Higher Criticism

The term "higher criticism" refers on the surface to a critical way of viewing the Bible. It is distinct from "lower criticism". Higher criticism is defined as "the study of the Bible having as its object the establishment of such facts as authorship and date of composition, as well as determination of a basis for exegesis." This idea was started in the 19th century. Lower criticism is a form of biblical criticism having as its purpose the reconstruction of the original texts of the books of the Bible. The usual name for this criticism is "textual criticism". All this sounds all well and good. The "higher" side looks at origins and authorship and the "lower" side looks for meanings of texts. But, if you were paying attention, you might have seen a sinister component in the definition of the "higher" side. They look for "determination of a basis for exegesis." Through whatever means they might use, they tell you, "Yes, it is possible to do useful exegesis on this text" or "No, there is no basis for exegesis on that text."

You see, despite the harmless, even beneficial-sounding concept, the "higher critics" became Bible critics. They began disassembling the Bible. "Well, this part is probably not written by Moses" (as Jesus indicated it was) "and that was certainly not written by Paul" (even though the early Church fathers and the text itself indicates that it was) "and ..." And so it went. Eventually we ended up with things like the Jesus Seminar in which "enlightened scholars" are voting on "Did Jesus say or do this?" and "the truth" is determined by a vote. (By the way, they generally voted, simply as a matter of principle, that Jesus did no miracles. Everything else was suspect.) The Higher Criticism movement spawned the Fundamentalist movement, a call back to biblical fundamentals rather than "higher critics" falderal. What the Higher Criticism movement did was start with Enlightenment principles (like "There can be no miracles") and work from there. Superimposing predetermined beliefs on top of the Bible, they ended up with a highly questionable, sharply reduced version of "Scripture" that, frankly, left little solid ground on which to stand. Unless the higher critic had a devotion to Scripture as well as scholarship (rather than scholarship over Scripture), it was inevitable that Scripture would suffer when pressed against the standard of humanism. So, based for instance on style and an author's qualifications, they would determine who wrote what. The higher critics (at least most of them) ended up with a "superior" position based almost exclusively on subjective analysis. With a prior commitment to rationalism and subjectivism, they, in essence, removed the Bible.

I would suggest that Higher Criticism would be a good thing. I would simply suggest that the version where God's Word is measured by human predispositions is not Higher Criticism. It would be like allowing a Dr. Seuss book to be your mode of evaluation of Einstein's Theory of Relativity. Not "higher". I would suggest that "Higher Criticism" would work much better if we allowed that which is higher--the inspired Word of God--to bear on that which is lower--our deceitful and desperately wicked hearts. Now that would be a Higher Criticism worth pursuing.

Here, try a couple of examples. When you read, "There is none who does good; no, not one" (Rom 3:12), do you understand that to mean "There is none who does good" or do you do what so many others do? "Well," they tell me, "I know lots of people who do good, so that can't be what it means." (You see, their experience trumps the text.) So "It's hyperbole," they tell me. And this hyperbole which says no one does good actually means almost everyone does good ... a hyperbole failure. Could it be that it means what it says and our understanding of "good" needs to change? That's the kind of higher criticism I'm talking about. When John writes, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God" (1 John 4:7), do you say, "Well, just about everyone loves"? Because if you do this text says "Whoever loves has been born of God and knows God", so you would be affirming universalism--everyone is born of God and knows God. Or could it be that this love is far more rare than we might think and we need to figure out how our understanding of love is not aligned with God's version? That is the higher criticism I'm recommending.

Much of Christendom handed the reins over to "scholars" who decided their prior beliefs were a suitable method of evaluating Scripture rather than subjecting their prior beliefs to Scripture. And the whole cart has been careening across the field of history ever since. Don't question it, mind you. They're scholars; you're not. But if it is true (again, my version of "higher criticism") that the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked (Jer 17:9), it would seem to me that we would welcome a reliable source like God's Word to provide corrections to our deceived hearts and offer renewal to our debased minds. I'm in favor of that version of higher criticism.