The true criticism of the Gospels is the criticism of the history of their origin.

The line reflects a historical-critical approach to the New Testament, emphasizing that evaluating the Gospels depends on investigating how, when, and why they were composed and transmitted rather than treating them as self-contained reports.

It suggests that the most meaningful way to assess the Gospels is to study their formation—sources, authorship, community influences, and editorial development—because those factors shape what the texts can reliably be taken to mean historically.