Doubts about the book were openly expressed in the 17th century by former Catholic Pierre Bayle, who questioned the Bible’s historicity and chronology. Others followed his way of thinking, and in the 19th century, skepticism came to full flower in the school of higher criticism. Higher critics insist that the Bible is not what it appears to be. According to them, Moses did not write the Pentateuch. Instead, it was compiled rather late in Jewish history from a number of sources written centuries after Moses lived. Any prophecy that was fulfilled must have been written after the fulfillment. Hence, Isaiah was written by a number of people over a period of hundreds of years. And Daniel was written about 165 B.C.E.

The effect of higher criticism is seen in the case of German Bible scholar David Friedrich Strauss: “Are we still Christians? No, said Strauss, at least not those among us who have absorbed the Higher Criticism, for we can no longer accept the Bible as the Word of God.”​—Religion and the Rise of Scepticism, by Franklin L. Baumer.

The new secular age also produced new discoveries in science. Some of these supported the Bible, but others seemed to clash with it. Hence, many were led to believe that the Bible was out of date. This feeling was reinforced in the middle of the 19th century when the theory of evolution was popularized​—a theory that flatly contradicts the Genesis account of creation. This theory was eagerly grasped by most of the scientific community and by the higher critics.

The Bible and Higher Criticism

Regarding higher criticism, the fact is that, as yet, no solid proof has ever been produced for its ideas. None of the supposed source materials of the Pentateuch or the book of Isaiah have ever been found. And ancient fragments of Daniel have been uncovered suggesting that that book was already highly esteemed just a few years after the higher critics claim that it was written!

Has science, then, in some ways disproved the Bible? Well, sometimes it has appeared to be so. For example, in the 18th century a deepening understanding of the makeup of the earth made it clear that our planet was very old. At that time, many religionists insisted that, according to the Bible, the earth was only 6,000 years old. This seemed a clear case of a Bible teaching being disproved. The fact is, though, that the Bible nowhere states how old the earth is. It was a misunderstanding on the part of those religionists that caused the problem.

The very first words of the Bible are: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) This statement, that there was a beginning, is in harmony with current scientific observations. Then, according to the Bible, there was a period when the earth was “formless and waste,” uninhabited and uninhabitable. (Genesis 1:2) Geologists who try to reconstruct the early history of the earth suggest that at one time this was indeed the case. Following that, the Bible describes how seas and landmasses were formed. Plant life appeared, then sea creatures, birds, and, eventually, land animals. Finally, man himself appeared. Overall, this is very similar to what scientists have discovered by digging through the old geological strata of the earth, even to the general order of the appearance of life.​—Genesis 1:1-28.