There are comparatively few matters of any real importance in the confused story of the Christian beginnings concerning which responsible critics would care to say, “It is established beyond peradventure of a doubt.” Wilhelm Wrede, though dead, yet speaketh. And there is the wholesome apprehension that such a rash utterance may prove a boomerang: some disciple of the dead master who so hated those smug confidences is sure to step forward, indued with a double portion of his spirit, to challenge, if not to deflate, the incautious scholar.