A Short Introduction to Old Testament Critical Issues

1. AN INTRODUCTION TO OLD TESTAMENT CRITICAL 

    ISSUES

        1) Biblical Criticism

            Criticism: Denotes primarily a judgment or an act of 

            judging. It comes from the Greek word krino and has the 

            meaning of “discern,” “test,” “pass judgment,” or  

            “determine.”

            Lower Criticism: Concerns itself with variants, 

            manuscripts, etc. Its purpose is to determine the 

            original reading of the Autographa when various 

            manuscripts have different readings. This is a valuable 

            tool that is compatible with verbal plenary inspiration. 

            Recommended texts which deal with this subject are:

                        Emmanuel Tov, Textual Criticism of the 

                        Hebrew Bible.

                        Ernst Würthein, The Text of the Old Testament.

            Higher Criticism (Quellensheidung): Concerns itself 

            with the age of the text, authorship, mode of 

            composition, sources, etc. This type of criticism is

            the enemy of verbal plenary inspiration.

        2) The Atmosphere That Hatched Higher Criticism

             (and attacked a proper view of Scripture):

            • The Enlightenment: (18^th cent.) The Enlightenment 

              gave birth to rationalism,which soon pervaded 

              Europe, especially in France and Germany.

              Rationalism is the belief that truth is not obtained 

              not by sensory techniques, but rather intellectual and 

              deductive. As a result, anti-supernaturalism grew over 

              time.

            • Deism: The belief that God's interaction with the 

              universe is like a clockmaker that winds up a clock, 

              sets it on the shelf, and leaves it to its own devices. 

              Deists doubted revelation because they believed that 

              God did not interfere in the affairs of mankind. 

              Prominent Deists in early United States history 

              include Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and 

              Thomas Paine.

            • Hegelism: George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel 

              (1770-1831) argued for a progression in culture 

              and history from lower to higher stages. Those 

              who held this position refused to accept that 

              monotheism came first.

            • Literary Criticism: The approach to ancient 

              literature’s historical accuracy was that it was guilty 

              until proven innocent. Through literary criticism people 

              thought they could go back and find the original text. 

              The assumption during the 18^th and 19^th centuries was 

              that poetry was a late development.

            • Evolution: Even before Charles Darwin (1809-1882) 

              popularized the theory, the rationalists made this 

              assumption. From the 1850s forward one of the fastest

              growing disciplines was religious evolution.

            • Antisemitism: Freidrich Delitzch (1850-1922) tended 

              to have antisemitic tendencies. He gave the lecture

              Babel und Bibel (1902), in which he argued that

              the Old Testament writings were not original, but 

              borrowed from Babylonian literature.