AKA Lower Criticism
Definition
An analysis of the date, unity, and authorship of the biblical writings in search of a hypothetical "original" text with limited resources that are in varying degrees of deterioration.
(The Origin of the Bible: Newly Updated by F. F. Bruce, J. I. Packer, Philip W. Comfort, and Carl F. H. Henry, 2020. Texts and Manuscripts of the Old Testament by Mark R. Norton, Page 155)
Process
- Collection and collation of existing manuscripts translations, and quotations
- Development of theory and methodology that will enable the critic to use the gathered information to reconstruct the most accurate text of the biblical materials
- Reconstruction of the history of the transmission of the text in order to identify the various influences affecting the texts
- Evaluation of specific variant readings in light of textual evidence, theology, and history
Textual Criticism of the Bible
The New Testament was written primarily in the A.D. 1st century, and complete manuscripts exist that were written only a few hundred years later. The Old Testament, however, was written over a thousand-year period with the oldest parts dating to at least the 12th century B.C. Its earliest known Hebrew manuscripts are medieval, 2000 years removed from the ancient times. Consequently, Old Testament textual history is more complex than the New Testament.
Until the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in the 1940s-1950s, the significant witnesses to the early Hebrew Scriptures were secondary Aramaic, Greek, and Latin translations. As translations, they are subject to sectarian and contextual alterations and interpolations and are of limited use to critics. The Dead Sea Scrolls are primary witnesses, though, and they generally affirm the accuracy of the Masoretic Text.
As the Masoretic Text did not stabilize until A.D. 500 and its development is not well-understood, the primary task of Old Testament textual critics has been to compare earlier writings in order to discover how the Masoretic Text came to be, and how it and earlier witnesses of the Hebrew Bible are related.
(The Origin of the Bible: Newly Updated by F. F. Bruce, J. I. Packer, Philip W. Comfort, and Carl F. H. Henry, 2020. Texts and Manuscripts of the Old Testament by Mark R. Norton, Page 155-157)