Bitter as the
resistance to this view has been, it has during the last years of
the nineteenth century won its way more and more to acknowledgment.
A careful examination made in 1893 by a competent Christian scholar
showed facts which are best given in his own words, as follows: "In
the period of thirty years ending in 1860, of the fifty great
authorities in this line, _four to one_ were in favour of the
Johannine authorship. Of those who in that period had advocated
this traditional position, one quarter--and certainly the very
greatest--finally changed their position to the side of a late date
and non-Johannine authorship. Of those who have come into this field
of scholarship since about 1860, some forty men of the first class,
two thirds reject the traditional theory wholly or very largely. Of
those who have contributed important articles to the discussion
from about 1880 to 1890, about _two to one_ reject the Johannine
authorship of the Gospel in its present shape--that is to say,
while forty years ago great scholars were _four to one in favour of_,
they are now _two to one against_, the claim that the apostle John
wrote this Gospel as we have it.
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