Higher Criticism: This method involves the various disciplines that try to explain how the original documents were composed. It seeks to explain the sources that author used, how and in what circumstances he wrote and how he put them together.

Higher criticism can be subdivided into two largely distinct disciplines: (i) historical criticism and (ii) literary criticism

Historical Criticism: “Historical criticism studies the prehistory of the text – all of the influences leading up to and including the final assembling of a finished product by the author or editor.”

Literary criticism: “Literary criticism analyses the features of the text in the final form in which an author published it” (Blomberg, 83).