Their criticism has, as we know, been classified under three heads:—
(1) Lower, or textual criticism.
(2) Higher, or documentary criticism.
(3) Historical, or contemporary criticism.
Lower criticism seeks for, and studies, the best and purest text obtainable—the text nearest to the original, from which fresh translations can be made.
Higher criticism seeks for, and studies, documents: it deals with the authenticity of different books, the date at which they were written, the names of their authors.
Historical criticism seeks for, and studies, data relating to the history of the times when each book was written, and the light thrown upon that history by recent discoveries (e.g. in archaeology, and excavations in Palestine).
No very definite results have yet been reached on many points of criticism, and, on many of them, scholars have had again and again to reverse their conclusions. We are still only en route, and are learning more and more to possess our souls in patience, and to wait awhile for anything in the nature of finality. Meanwhile, the living substance is unshaken and untouched.
This living substance, entrusted to living men, is the revelation of God to man, and leads us to our last selected name—Revelation.
(V) REVELATION.
The Bible is the revelation of the Blessed Trinity to man—of God the Son, by God the Father, through God the Holy Ghost. It is the revelation of God to man, and in man. First, it reveals God to man—"pleased as Man with man to dwell". In it, God stands in front of man, and, through the God-Man, shows him what God is like. It reveals God as the "pattern on the mount," for man to copy on the plain. But it does more than this: it reveals God in man. So St. Paul writes: "It pleased God to reveal His Son in me";[[11]] and again, "God hath shined in our hearts".[[12]] The Bible reveals to me that Jesus, the revelation of the Father, through the Eternal Spirit, dwells in me, as well as outside me. He is a power within, as well as a pattern without.