Meaning of historical criticism | Babel Free

Definitions

1. The systematic study of received texts, especially the Bible, as documents composed in a particular historical context with varying reliability as sources.
   uncountable
2. The systematic, reasoned study of history and critique of received historical traditions in general.
   archaic, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“Concerning the narratives of Daniel, historical criticism has given its primary energy to the placement of the narratives in the Maccabean crisis of the second century, far away from the sixth century when its reported events purportedly happened.”

“Our genealogical writers have given a fair pedigree of the family of Seton in the fourteenth century. […] This pedigree, however, will not stand the test of historical criticism.”

“The plain rule of historical criticism, which is simply the teaching of common sense, is, putting aside all those writers whose date or position deprives them of immediate knowledge and authority, to rely exclusively on those who were nearest to the time and scene of the events described, and to examine in all cases the source whence their information is derived.”

“The points in [Herodotus’] historical criticism of the past, are first his rejection of all extra-natural interference, and secondly, the attributing to these ancient heroes the motives and modes of thought of his own day.”

CEFR level