Higher Criticism​—How Reliable?

4-6. What are some of Wellhausen’s theories of higher criticism?

⁴ Higher criticism of the Bible got started in earnest during the 18th and 19th centuries. In the latter half of the 19th century, the German Bible critic Julius Wellhausen popularized the theory that the first six books of the Bible, including Joshua, were written in the fifth century B.C.E.​—about a thousand years after the events described. He did say, though, that they contained material that had been written down earlier.​¹ This theory was printed in the 11th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, published in 1911, which explained: “Genesis is a post-exilic work composed of a post-exilic priestly source (P) and non-priestly earlier sources which differ markedly from P in language, style and religious standpoint.”

7, 8. What “proofs” did Wellhausen have for his theories, and were they sound?

⁷ What “proof” did they have for these ideas? Higher critics claim to be able to divide the text of the early books of the Bible into a number of different documents. A basic principle they use is to assume that, generally speaking, any Bible verse using the Hebrew word for God (’Elo·himʹ) on its own was written by one writer, while any verse referring to God by his name, Jehovah, must have been written by another​—as if one writer could not use both terms.​⁴

⁸ Similarly, anytime an event is recorded more than once in a book, it is taken as proof of more than one writer at work, even though ancient Semitic literature has other similar examples of repetition. Additionally, it is assumed that any change of style means a change of writer. Yet, even modern-language writers often write in different styles at different stages in their careers, or when they are dealing with different subject matter.b

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Milton wrote in different styles, not just one. Do higher critics believe his work to be the product of a number of different writers?