142 EEV. p. p. FLOUEXOY^ D.D._, OX BEAPJXG OF ARCH^OLOGICAL 



Tiibingen, and founder of the so-called Tiibingen school of 

 criticism. 



Assuming the impossibility of miracles and of the super- 

 natural in general, and then adopting the Hegelian theory of 

 every set of opinions as passing through three stages — affirma- 

 tion, contradiction, and reconciliation (thesis, antithesis, 

 synthesis), Baur endeavoured to account for the origin of the 

 Xew Testament writings by supposing that they developed in a 

 purely natural way by this rule. He acknowledged the four 

 " greater " epistles of Paul — Eomans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, 

 and Galatians — as productions of that Apostle, as the evidence 

 forced him to do, and placed them in the first period, that of 

 " affirmation." But, according to his theory, the Pour Gospels 

 must have originated in the second century, the first three in 

 the period of contradiction " or controversy, and the Fourth 

 Gospel in the period of " reconciliation." This last period, 

 according to him, extended from 160 to 170 a.d. 



The Tubingen theory thus made all the Gospels spurious 

 productions, written by unknown persons instead of Matthew, 

 Mark, Luke, and John. According to Baur and his followers, 

 the case of the Fourth Gospel was the most desperate of all. 

 But something like the Titanic's distressful fate was to occur to 

 this very popular theory in its rapid course through the cold 

 waves of scepticism. In spite of warnings, it kept on its way 

 and impinged on a very stubborn fact — the existence of the 

 supposedly non-existent Diatessaron — on the Diatcssaron itself, 

 indeed. The wreck was complete, and the shattered theory 

 now lies buried as in unfathomable depths. 



This was the way of it : 



The author of Supernatural Religion, some time before 

 the publication of the Diatessaron, with what was intended to 

 be biting sarcasm, said " No one seems to have seen Tatian's 

 Harmony, probably for the reason that there luas no such book." 



Lightfoot's reply showed from quotations from the 

 Diatessaron by Syriac authors at several periods that this was 

 untrue. Yet, as the book seemed to have been irretrievably 

 lost, it was impossible to say what its contents w^ere, and what 

 was its value as a witness for the Gospels, from which it was 

 said to have been composed. 



The mystery was soon to be solved. Many passages of 

 Syriac literature showed that Ephraem Syrus, who died in 

 373 A.D., wrote a commentary on it. In 1876, the year 

 following the sarcastic reference to the work by Mr. Waiter 

 Cassells, the author (as is now well known) of Supernatural 



