Wikipedia:WikiProject Bible/Biblical criticism work group

This task force is believed to be inactive.

Consider looking for related projects for help or ask at the Teahouse.
If you are not currently a project participant and wish to help you may still participate in the project or its parent project WikiProject Bible. This status should be changed if collaborative activity resumes.

NOTE: Biblical criticism is NOT about attacking the Bible: that would be Criticism of the Bible, which is where criticisms are made against the Bible as a source of reliable information or ethical guidance. Biblical criticism is the academic study of the Bible as a text or collection of texts for academic purposes.

Some Wikipedians have formed a project to better organise Biblical criticism in related articles. This page and its subpages contain their suggestions; it is hoped that this project will help to focus the efforts of other Wikipedians. If you would like to help, please inquire on the talk page and see the to-do list there.

For more information on WikiProjects, please see Wikipedia:WikiProjects and Wikipedia:WikiProject best practices.

Scope

This is a WikiProject to improve the coverage of material related to Biblical Criticism. I.e. to improve the provision of information deriving from academic rather than just religious sources.

Neutrality is important. As this WikiProject involves providing academic information to articles concerning topics which are sometimes religiously sensitive, it is particularly important to remain as Neutral as possible. Nevertheless, remember that neutrality does not mean excising information other people might object to.

Structure

The majority of Bible-related topics are already present on Wikipedia, and so this project entails the addition into articles of material concerning academic (rather than religious) research into those topics.

The articles will most likely already contain

Common traditional ideas about the subject of the article, since these are common knowledge in the relevant culture
Ideas of major religions about the subject of the article, since these are likely to be known by the adherants of the religion, of which, as major religions, there will be many amongst the wikipedia demographic
References from popular culture, because popular culture is popular

This project is about providing the missing:

Historical information — the views held historically about the subject of the article, during, amongst other periods, (if relevant):
- The reformation
- The dark ages
- The foundation of the Christian Church:
  - Views of Church Fathers
  - Views of people the Church Fathers viewed as heretics
  - Views of uninvolved commentators
- Israel after the exile (600BC):
  - Views expressed in the Midrash and Talmud
  - Views reported by commentators
  - Deceased pre-exilic traditions reported by post-exilic commentators
Modern academic information — for example:
- Historical context
- Cultural context
- Source critical information
- Critical theories: e.g.
  - Naturalistic explanations
  - Parallel traditions in other historic cultures
- Apologetics (note that this means apologetics originating from an academic source, rather than a local rabbi, or priest)

A large amount of related information can be found on the public domain Jewish Encyclopedia. Much of it has not yet been copied over to Wikipedia. Note that the Jewish Encyclopedia is 100 years out of date, and much of the academic knowledge may have changed, improved, been made more precise, or been added to, for example, by scholars such as Martin Noth, and Richard Friedman.

Tasks

Check that biblical articles contain at least
- the information in other public domain/GFDL encyclopedias (e.g. the Jewish Encyclopedia), or evidence that that/those view(s) existed but was/were superseeded
- the information and opinions in well known ancient sources (e.g. the Midrash/Talmud, Adversus Haereses, and the works of Thomas Aquinas and Augustine of Hippo)
- modern academic views both apologetic and anti-apologetic, do not merely include straw men
- Here are some fairly extensive lists of articles to go through:
  - /Torah list - For torah/pentateuch articles (about 50% are currently red-links)
  - /Deuteronomic history list - For articles covering the period of Joshua — Kings (and by extension, Chronicles)
Go through textual conflicts mentioned in surveys, eg.
- "Old Testament: Dead Sea Scrolls". Institute for Biblical & Scientific Studies. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
- Hasel, Gerhard (31 July 2012). "New Light on the Book of Daniel from the Dead Sea Scrolls". Associates for Biblical Research. Retrieved 20 June 2017.

Useful lists

Here are some lists of relevant articles. Note that many are currently red-links; one of the implicit goals of the project is to cause those to become blue.

Category:Biblical criticism
List of Hebrew Bible stories
List of New Testament stories
List of New Testament papyri -- list complete, articles on individual papyri need of expansion
List of New Testament uncials -- list complete, articles on individual uncials need of expansion
List of New Testament minuscules -- list in need of expansion, articles on individual minuscules required
List of New Testament lectionaries -- list in need of expansion, articles required
Quotations from the Old Testament in the New Testament --
Bible verses not included in modern translations
New Testament apocrypha

Assessment

Biblical Criticism articles by quality and importance
Quality	Importance
Quality	Top	High	Mid	Low	???	Total
FA				1		1
B		1	1			2
C	2		1	1	2	6
Start	8	3	2		10	23
Stub	3			1	4	8
Other			1	1		2
Assessed	13	4	5	4	16	42
Total	13	4	5	4	16	42

Participants

--francis 15:15, 29 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]
--Wetman 16:34, 29 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]
--KHM03 18:46, 29 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]
--Rob117
--Briangotts (Talk) (Contrib) 23:46, 17 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
--Neddyseagoon
--Doc ^ask? 22:18, 18 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
--David L Rattigan 10:08, 20 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]
--Badbilltucker 18:43, 19 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
--Vassyana 09:53, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
--Savant13 13:53, 23 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
--Ephilei 20:12, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
--polymathematics 04:14, 28 March 2007 (UTC) - verily want to help. Send me a few priorities![reply]
--Ronabop 02:39, 29 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
--Alastair Haines 13:43, 15 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
--Andrew c 02:06, 15 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]
--Gister (talk) 01:45, 28 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]
--Lamorak (talk) 23:34, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
--Leszek Jańczuk (talk) 03:42, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
--Muzhogg (talk) 05:25, 9 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]
--RomanHistorian (talk) 19:38, 16 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]
--JohnThorne (talk) 22:29, 21 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]
--Ken987654156 (talk) 15:57, 24 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
--Sondra.kinsey (talk) 16:42, 20 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
--CJ (talk) 15:42, 14 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]
--Jenhawk777 (talk) 2:09 6 May 2020 (CST)

Templates

{{WikiProject Bible|class=|importance=|criticism=yes|criticism-importance=}} should be placed on the talk pages of all articles within this subject.

Infoboxes

All members should feel free to add {{User WPBC}} to their userpages.

Stub templates

{{Hebrew-Bible-stub}}

Other templates

Relevant new Wikipedia articles

Please feel free to list relevant new articles here (newer articles at the top, please). Any new articles that have an interesting or unusual fact in them should be suggested for the Did you know? box on the Main Wikipedia page. DYN has a 72 hr. time limit from the creation of the article.

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