| Historical-critical Method |
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Information AboutHistorical-critical Method |
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The Historical Critical Method is a broad term that includes numerous methodologies and strategies for understanding ancient and Higher Criticism . LOWER CRITICISM None of the original books of the New Testament have survived to modern times. All that exists are copies of these original documents. Since they often do not match, Lower Criticism was developed to find what the original looked like. For example, Josephus employed Scribe s to copy his '' Antiquities Of The Jews ''. As the scribes copied the ''Antiquities'', they made mistakes. The copies of these copies also had the mistakes. Each generation of copies contained errors, but not necessarily more than the previous generation as errors would be fixed when caught by scribes. When an error consists of something being left out, it is called a deletion. When something was added, it is called an interpolation. Today, none of Josephus' original work survives, but different families of texts have survived. Lower Criticism studies these surviving families, particularly the differences among them. Scholars are then able to piece together what the original looked like. The more surviving copies, the more accurately they can piece together the original. Lower Criticism is applied to understanding the source documents of the Historical Jesus . HIGHER CRITICISM Once Lower Critics have done their job and we have a good idea of what the original text looked like, Higher Critics can then compare this text with the writing of other authors. Scholars try to understand whether the author is an eyewitness to Jesus, or whether he is basing his work on primary or even secondary sources. They also try to understand the bias of the writer, which will give us hints to why he focuses on one aspect of Jesus' life but omits another. An example of Higher Criticism at work would be the study of the . Today, most Higher Critical Scholars believe that Luke edited three sources: Mark, the Q Document , and Proto-Luke into the Canonical Lukean Gospel. They do not agree on the nature of Proto-Luke EXTERNAL LINKS
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