Understanding Biblical Criticism
Overview
The term “biblical criticism” simply means discerning the most accurate text of the Bible (“textual criticism”) and then exploring issues such as who wrote the various books of the Bible, when they were written, and the circumstances of the writing (“higher criticism”). Yet because the word “criticism” can imply fault-finding and because some prominent biblical critics come to their study with a skepticism of the historical value of the Bible, biblical criticism often stirs up suspicion or even hostility. F. F. Bruce assures us that we don’t have to be afraid of biblical criticism—textual, higher, source, form, or other approaches. Instead, he says, biblical criticism “can serve to confirm the validity of the Gospel record.”
Top Highlights
“Where the original documents have been lost, as has happened with all the books of the Bible, the original wording must be ascertained, as far as possible, by a critical comparison of the surviving copies. This operation is known as textual criticism.” (source)
“By the singular care and providence of God, the New Testament text (and the Old Testament text too, for that matter) has come down to us in such essential purity that even the most uncritical edition of the original, or the most incompetent or even the most biased translation of such an edition, cannot effectively obscure the Word of God which the Bible proclaims, or neutralize its saving power.” (source)
“In the case of the Bible, however, we cannot correct the copies by reference to the original documents because the original documents have not survived. The original documents are sometimes called the autographs, but this term can be used properly only where the author actually wrote his own work.” (source)
“Those who desire to know Christ ‘after the flesh,’ to regard him ‘from a human point of view’ (as the RSV puts it), objectively and dispassionately, will find disappointingly little material for their purpose in the New Testament, for the New Testament writers were not concerned to give such a detached portrayal of Christ. And the Christ with whom the New Testament critic and exegete finds himself confronted is the Christ who is presented in these writings from faith to faith, and not until he sees Christ from the standpoint of faith will he begin to understand what the New Testament is about.” (source)
- Title: Understanding Biblical Criticism
- Author: F. F. Bruce
- Publisher: Kingsley Books
- Print Publication Date: 2017
- Logos Release Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Bible › Criticism, interpretation, etc
- ISBNs: 9781912149124, 1912149125
- Resource ID: LLS:NDRSTNDNGCRTCSM
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T01:45:52Z
F. F. Bruce (1910-1990) was known worldwide as the "dean of evangelical scholarship"—a reputation earned by a lifetime of scholarship, teaching, and writing. Trained in classics at the University of Aberdeen and Cambridge University, he taught at the Universities of Edinburgh, Leeds, and Sheffield before serving for nearly twenty years as the Rylands Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis at the University of Manchester in England. During his distinguished career, he wrote many outstanding commentaries and books, including Paul, Apostle of the Heart Set Free; Israel and the Nations; New Testament History; The Books and the Parchments: How We Got Our English Bible; Jesus and Christian Origins Outside the New Testament; and The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? He also served as general editor of The New International Commentary on the New Testament.