Historical Criticism

Historical criticism, also known as the

historical-critical method or higher criticism,
is a branch of literary criticism that investigates
the origins of ancient texts in order to understand
"the world behind the text".
 The primary goal of historical criticism is to
discover the text's primitive or original
meaning in its original historical context and
its literal sense or sensus literalis historicus.
The secondary goal seeks to establish a
reconstruction of the historical situation of the
author and recipients of the text. This may be
accomplished by reconstructing the true nature of
the events which the text describes.
Methods

Historical-critical methods are the specific

procedures used to examine the texts historical
origins, such as: the time, the place in which the
text was written, its sources, the events, dates,
persons, places, things, and customs that are
mentioned or implied in the text.
Application

Application of the historical critical method, in

biblical studies, investigates the books of the
Hebrew Bible as well as the New Testament.
Historical critics compare texts to other texts
written around the same time. An example of this
is when modern biblical scholarship has attempted
to understand the Book of Revelation in its 1st
century historical context, by identifying its
literary genre with Jewish and Christian
apocalyptic literature.
 Historical criticism has also been applied to other
religious writings from Hinduism, Buddhism,
Confucianism, as well as the Qur'an.