When Were The Gospels Written? |
The Gospels Were Written When?
When Were The Gospels Written?If a modern history book mentions the World Trade Center twin towers still standing in New York, it was written before September 11, 2001, right? But how does this relate to when the Gospels were written? AD 70 was when Titus sacked Jerusalem. AD 64 was when Nero burnt Rome and blamed Christians to launch the great persecution. And AD 62 was when Paul was martyred in Rome after 2 years in prison. Acts, which comes just after the Gospels, records the history of the early church. Acts was written by a doctor named Luke who was Paul's assistant and note taker. Since Acts doesn't mention any of the milestones above and ends just after mentioning Paul's 2 year imprisonment in Rome, it must have been written in AD 62. Acts starts, "The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen..." (Act 1:1-2) The "former account" Luke mentions in Acts is what we call today the Gospel of Luke, also written to this man named Theophilus: "Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed." (Luke 1:1-4) The delivered eyewitness accounts Luke mentions above are what we today call the Gospels of Matthew, written by one of Jesus' 12 Apostles, and Mark, written by the assistant to and the note taker for Apostle Peter. If we estimate a 3-5 year gap between Acts and the Gospel of Luke and another 3-5 years between Luke and the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, this means three of four Gospels were written around AD 52-59, only about 2 decades after they last saw Jesus. So the Gospels were written by eyewitnesses or their note takers and read by people who had witnessed the events recorded and therefore could validate their details. Next, how do we know that today's Gospels are the same as the Gospels written 2,000 years ago?
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