The Reformation and Bible Criticism

Abstract

MODERN Bible criticism is commonly regarded as having its origin in the Reformation period. It was then after the long medieval period of scholastic exegesis with its emphasis on the four-fold sense of Scripture, that the importance of penetrating to the literal meaning was realized anew. The principle was not original with the reformers, having served as the basis of interpretation among the exegetes of the school of Antioch in the fifth century. But the revival of literal interpretation by the reformers marks the beginning of the modern critical approach to the study of the Bible.