Historical criticism is a specific kind of literary analysis that looks at a text in its

entire historic context. This kind of analysis is also often called higher
criticism. In historic criticism, researchers often consider comparable texts
from the same time period, utilizing other resources to come to a greater
understanding of how a specific text interacted with its environment when it
was written.

Lower criticism is often contrasted with historical criticism, or higher criticism.

According to research experts, lower criticism looks at the meaning of text. By
contrast, historical criticism looks more at the environmental factors that
influenced the writing.

One example of using historical types of criticism is in the analysis of that wide
category of historic writing commonly referred to as “sacred texts.” This
includes the analysis of the Bible, a book that informs much of Western
civilization in various ways. The use of historical analysis or criticism applied
to the Bible has generated a considerable amount of controversy in societies
that value this book.

paleography, study of ancient and medieval handwriting. The term is

derived from the Greek palaios (“old”) and graphein (“to write”).

archaeology, the scientific study of the material remains of past human life
and activities. These include human artifacts from the very earliest stone tools
to the man-made objects that are buried or thrown away in the present day:
everything made by human beings—from simple tools to complex

chronology the order in which a series of events happened, or a list or

explanation of these events in the order in which they happened

analogy a comparison between things that have similar features, often used
to help explain a principle or idea

veracity conformity to truth or fact; accuracy