 In 1899 J. C. Hawkins took up the question with a careful statistical analysis and argued for Marcan priority without Proto-Mark, and other British scholars soon followed to strengthen the argument, which then received wide acceptance.Many scholars in the twentieth century regarded Marcan priority as no longer just a hypothesis, but an established fact.Still, fresh challenges from B. C. Butler and  proved influential in reviving the rival hypothesis of Matthaean priority, and recent decades have seen scholars less certain about Marcan priority and more eager to explore all the alternatives.