Strauss’s vacillation had, therefore, not even been of any indirect advantage to him. Instead of endeavouring to find a purposeful connexion in the Synoptic Gospels by means of which he might test the plan of the Fourth Gospel, he simply restores his former view unaltered, thereby showing that in the decisive point it was incapable of development. In the very year in which he prepared his improved edition, Weisse, in his _Evangelische Geschichte_, had set up the hypothesis that Mark is the ground‐document, and had thus carried criticism past the “dead‐point” which Strauss had never been able to overcome. Upon Strauss, however, the new suggestion made no impression. He does, it is true, mention Weisse’s book in the preface to his third edition, and describes it as “in many respects a very satisfactory piece of work.” It had appeared too late for him to make use of it in his first volume; but he did not use it in his second volume either. He had, indeed, a distinct antipathy to the Marcan hypothesis. It was unfortunate that in this controversy the highly important suggestions in regard to various historical problems which had been made incidentally in the course of Strauss’s work were never discussed at all. The impulse in the direction of progress which might have been given by his treatment of the relation of Jesus to the law, of the question regarding His particularism, of the eschatological conception, the Son of Man, and the Messiahship of Jesus, wholly failed to take effect, and it was only after long and circuitous wanderings that theology again came in sight of these problems from an equally favourable point of view. In this respect Strauss shared the fate of Reimarus; the positive solutions of which the outlines were visible behind their negative criticism escaped observation in consequence of the offence caused by the negative side of their work; and even the authors themselves failed to realise their full significance. X. THE MARCAN HYPOTHESIS _Christian Hermann Weisse._ Die evangelische Geschichte kritisch und philosophisch bearbeitet. (A Critical and Philosophical Study of the Gospel History.) 2 vols. Leipzig, Breitkopf and Härtel, 1838. Vol. i. 614 pp. Vol. ii. 543 pp. _Christian Gottlob Wilke._ Der Urevangelist. (The Earliest Evangelist.) 1838. Dresden and Leipzig. 694 pp. _Christian Hermann Weisse._ Die Evangelienfrage in ihrem gegenwärtigen Stadium. (The Present Position of the Problem of the Gospels.) Leipzig, 1856.