higher criticism definitions

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the scientific study of biblical writings to determine their origin and meaning

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 1836 study of biblical writings to determine their literary history and the purpose and meaning of the authors — compare lower criticism • higher critic noun

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Higher criticism High"er crit"i*cism Criticism which includes the study of the contents, literary character, date, authorship, etc., of any writing; as, the higher criticism of the Pentateuch. Called also historical criticism. The comparison of the Hebrew and Greek texts . . . introduces us to a series of questions affecting the composition, the editing, and the collection of the sacred books. This class of questions forms the special subject of the branch of critical science which is usually distinguished from the verbal criticism of the text by the name of higher, or historical, criticism. --W. Robertson Smith.