higher criticism

1. 1.

   the scientific study of biblical writings to determine their origin and meaning

   Broadertextual criticism

Questions about higher criticism

What does higher criticism mean?

higher criticism means "the scientific study of biblical writings to determine their origin and meaning".

Is higher criticism a common word?

higher criticism is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.