Word.ws English Dictionary

lower criticism

lower criticism noun: synonym of textual criticism (“scientific reconstruction of original historical texts”).

Noun

lower criticism (uncountable)

  1. (dated) Synonym of textual criticism (“scientific reconstruction of original historical texts”).
    • Nor should it be forgotten in this connection that the conclusions of the Lower Criticism respecting the text were at first as vehemently assailed as are those of the Higher Criticism respecting the contents of Scripture, and from similar premises.1891 August, Llewelyn J. Evans, “The Inerrancy of Scripture”, in The Homiletic Review, volume 22, number 2, page 106

Synonyms of lower criticism

Origin of lower criticism

Calque of German niedere Kritik. In contrast to higher criticism, i.e. historical criticism, the broader interpretation of texts as historical sources, understood as building on the results of “lower criticism”.

Questions about lower criticism

What does lower criticism mean?
Lower criticism means synonym of textual criticism (“scientific reconstruction of original historical texts”).
What part of speech is lower criticism?
Lower criticism is a noun.

Words near lower criticism in the dictionary

  1. lower convex envelope
  2. lower convex envelopes
  3. lower court
  4. lower courts
  5. Lower Creek
  6. lower criticism
  7. Lower Cumberworth
  8. Lower Dagsian
  9. Lower Darwen
  10. lower deck
  11. lower decks

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lower criticism (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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