Historical criticism

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The systematic study of received texts, especially the Bible, as documents composed in a particular historical context with varying reliability as sources. uncountable

    "Concerning the narratives of Daniel, historical criticism has given its primary energy to the placement of the narratives in the Maccabean crisis of the second century, far away from the sixth century when its reported events purportedly happened."

  2. 2
    The systematic, reasoned study of history and critique of received historical traditions in general. archaic, uncountable

    "Our genealogical writers have given a fair pedigree of the family of Seton in the fourteenth century. […] This pedigree, however, will not stand the test of historical criticism."

Synonyms

All synonyms
historicalism

Example

More examples

"Concerning the narratives of Daniel, historical criticism has given its primary energy to the placement of the narratives in the Maccabean crisis of the second century, far away from the sixth century when its reported events purportedly happened."

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