To give any account of
Baur's detailed conclusions, or of the method by which he reached
them, would require a volume. They are very scantily presented in
Mr. Mackay's work on the "Tubingen School and its Antecedents,"
to which we may refer the reader desirous of further information.
We can 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.
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