The Bible and Wisdom II

In the nineteenth century in particular, this view became increasingly accepted by numerous personalities through the so-called Tübingen School, which was led by the truly great Bible scholar and brilliant mind Christian Baur. Baur's view is roughly this: the Gospel of John was written late, very late, whereas the other evangelists wrote earlier, still according to certain reports from those who may have seen one thing or another themselves or learned about it from people who had witnessed the events in Palestine. The Gospel of John, however, was not written until the second century. It was not written from prehistory, but was influenced by Greek philosophy and by what had already occurred in the Christian communities, so that John, influenced by this, created an image of Christ Jesus that edified people and uplifted them in such a way that it is, in a sense, lyrical, teaching about the way in which people began to think, feel, and perceive in a Christian way in the second century, but it can no longer teach us about what happened at the beginning of our time.