here merely say that twenty
years of energetic controversy have only served to establish most of
Baur's leading conclusions more firmly than ever. The priority of the
so-called gospel of Matthew, the Pauline purpose of "Luke," the second
in date of our gospels, the derivative and second-hand character of
"Mark," and the unapostolic origin of the fourth gospel, are points
which may for the future be regarded as wellnigh established by
circumstantial evidence. So with respect to the pseudo-Pauline epistles,
Baur's work was done so thoroughly that the only question still left
open for much discussion is that concerning the date and authorship
of the first and second "Thessalonians,"--a point of quite inferior
importance, so far as our present subject is concerned. Seldom have such
vast results been achieved by the labour of a single scholar. Seldom has
any historical critic possessed such a combination of analytic and
of co-ordinating powers as Baur. His keen criticism and his wonderful
flashes of insight exercise upon the reader a truly poetic effect like
that which is felt in contemplating the marvels of physical discovery.

The comprehensive labours of Baur were followed up by Zeller's able work
on the "Acts of the Apostles," in which that book was shown to have been
partly founded upon documents written by Luke, or some other companion
of Paul, and expanded and modified by a much later writer with the
purpose of covering up the traces of the early schism between the
Pauline and the Petrine sections of the Church. Along with this,
Schwegler's work on the "Post-Apostolic Times" deserves mention as
clearing up many obscure points relating to the early development
of dogma. Finally, the "New Life of Jesus," by Strauss, adopting and
utilizing the principal discoveries of Baur and his followers, and
combining all into one grand historical picture, worthily completes the
task which the earlier work of the same author had inaugurated.

The reader will have noticed that, with the exception of Spinoza, every
one of the names above cited in connection with the literary analysis
and criticism of the New Testament is the name of a German. Until
within the last decade, Germany has indeed possessed almost an absolute
monopoly of the science of Biblical criticism; other countries having
remained not only unfamiliar with its methods, but even grossly ignorant
of its conspicuous results, save when some German treatise of more than
ordi