Biblical criticism

Biblical criticism studies the origins, composition, transmission, and historical contexts of biblical texts. It uses historical, literary, and textual methods to analyze how these texts were formed and interpreted.

Textual criticism: The study of variant readings in copies of texts and the reconstruction of their earliest recoverable wording. It compares biblical manuscripts to assess how wording changed during transmission.
Documentary hypothesis: A theory that the Pentateuch was assembled from several major written sources. It became a prominent model for explaining the composition of the Torah.
Synoptic problem: The question of how the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are literarily related. It demonstrates source criticism through shared wording and narrative sequences.
Canonical criticism: An approach that studies biblical texts in the form and order in which they became scripture. It emphasizes the received canon, while many critical methods investigate earlier compositional stages.
Source criticism: The analysis of sources used by an author or editor to compose a text. It asks which earlier materials may lie behind biblical writings.
Johann Salomo Semler: An eighteenth-century German theologian who helped establish historical approaches to biblical interpretation. His distinction between scripture and the history of the biblical canon shaped later inquiry.
Q source: A hypothetical collection of sayings proposed as a source shared by Matthew and Luke. It is one influential explanation of similarities not derived from Mark.
Historical-critical method: A set of methods for interpreting texts through their historical origins, contexts, and development. It overlaps strongly with biblical criticism but names a specific methodological approach.
Form criticism: The study of literary forms, their conventions, and the social settings in which they were used. It classifies biblical passages by genre and investigates their earlier settings.
Baruch Spinoza: A seventeenth-century philosopher who argued that the Bible should be interpreted through its language and historical context. His historical treatment of biblical authorship anticipated later critical methods.

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