In the last two centuries, many bible scholars around the world have spent enormous hours in search of historical Jesus. With the rise of the Enlightenment period, scholars viewed the Bible as any literature and treated it as such. The Bible once accepted as the Word of God and inerrant became a subject of scrutiny for its claims and reliability of its historicity. In the quest, some have gone down the rabbit trail and dusted their faith while others have come to better understand the person of Jesus Christ using the same method of investigation. The sheer volume of their works has been a subject of criticism ever since they put the Bible to historical tests for its reliability in terms of historical data and the person of Jesus Christ. 

Before we deal with the question of whether it is appropriate and beneficial for Christians with a high view of scripture to critically analyze the Bible, we have to define the term “criticism” on its own merits. The word itself carries a negative connotation as it does make it look like we are to criticize the Bible. The Greek word κρισις (krisis) means “judgment.” We are, as a reader, making a conscious and intelligent judgment regarding the Word of God by critically analyzing and testing the historical documents and all the available shreds of evidence to establish the historicity and reliability of the accounts of the Bible. We ought to recognize that the Bible we have in our hands did not magically appear from heaven but the work of men God used in the historical setting to communicate his message to humankind. 

Indeed, God revealed his Word to humankind; yet, the human element could not be ignored in the recording and canonization of the scripture. It is a recorded history of a people group, events, historical figures, places, and situations. The very fact of human involvement in recording the history and determining what documents from antiquity must be in the canon and validating them commands historical criticism of the Bible. When we ask these questions on its historical reliability, authorship, date, sources, place, and purpose like any other ancient literature, we are genuinely taking the task of criticism by answering those questions.

Textual critics have been using the “historical-critical method to determine if the Jesus of history ever existed. Their approach to the Bible has been mostly biased and negative. They reduce Jesus to a mere Jewish disillusioned man or an apocalyptic preacher if not a non-existent, mythical figure. They have abused the “historical-critical method” that deduced Jesus to myth and the Bible exclusively as a pure form of human literary production. A naturalistic presupposition deemed as a “scientific method” largely postulates an a priori conclusion that a miracle cannot happen. Anything contrary to natural causation and effect cannot ever happen. In other words, there is no virgin birth, miracles, resurrection, and consummation. They dismiss or discredit anything that is deemed unnatural. What we have left is a man from the Middle East utterly disfigured, incoherent, and devoid of cohesion once stripped of his supernatural from the person of Jesus. 

We now can understand why many evangelical Christians have an undesirable view of the scholarship of criticism. I have already addressed one reason due to its linguistic association with critique. Next, Christians with a high view of scripture feel that it is disrespectful to critically analyze the inerrant Word of God when they feel that their faith has been under constant attack from many liberal theologians and like. It can be traumatizing for parents whose children are struggling with doubts when any liberal theologians come out with a bestselling book solely written to dismantle the faith of Christians. Nevertheless, we have to recognize that historical criticism is a necessity to help the body of Christ to make informed judgments. History is important. Unless we know the history, and source of our faith, we cannot call ourselves informed believers. The historical-critical method has contributed to our understanding of God behind history. The historical-critical method is the methodology for making an informed judgment on the historical understanding of the Bible and our faith. In this sense, we cannot overlook the significance of making a conscientious historical analysis of the Bible to edify the church and fence off external negative influences.