A sceptic says that he doesn’t read the gospels because they were written too late. One day crossing the road, he dies. Called to trial, he sees God. He tells him: “The truth is that the gospels were written early, but for you now… It’s too late!”
Among the criticisms advanced by sceptics, one is that the gospels were written too late in time, and therefore they would not be historically reliable testimonies. In this post, we are going to see evidence that the gospels were written 10 to 30 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Dating of manuscripts
What would have happened if the ancients, instead of copying his gospel, had John cloned? Today we could interview him about Jesus’ life. Anyway, sceptics would say: “That guy… is from the Middle Ages!”
The Gospels were written on papyrus, like many other ancient documents. Sadly, the originals are lost, therefore we can’t scientifically date them. Scribes copied them by hand with great precision. Some of those copies have survived to the present day. Experts have them available for analysis. The oldest complete New Testament dates back to 350. Many fragments of even older copies have also survived. The oldest fragments are dated to the second century. That is, one hundred years after the originals. So, in the second century, gospel copies were already circulating. This is what we expect from gospels written in the first century.
Lack of anachronisms
Sceptics claim that gospels correctly describe first-century Palestine because they were written… by Martians! A famous sceptic states: “The gospels prove that… Aliens were spying on us!”.
Among ancient texts, we can find examples of false gospels, written centuries later. Experts are able to identify these forgeries by the presence of anachronisms. Those are errors committed by the forgers, who fail to describe correctly some historical details. For example, it was impossible for an author who lived in a later era, to know all the details of first-century Palestine. Let’s consider one more example. The author is talking about a medieval story. But in the middle of it, he starts talking about a steam train. Of course. in the Middle Ages, steam trains had not yet been invented. By the presence of this error, we can say that the author is not writing from the Middle Ages, but from the XIX century, when steam trains already existed. Scholars have performed this analysis on the New Testament but haven’t found any anachronism. Nor a steam train!. On the contrary, Gospel writers correctly describe thousands of details relating to the first century. The lack of anachronisms tells us that the gospels were written during the first century, by people who lived in that historical context.
Extra-biblical sources
It is said that Papias knew John so well, that the apostle did not tolerate any imperfection on Papias’ part, especially… For his birthday cake!
The apostles became leaders of the first Christian communities. Then they passed down their testimonies to their students. They also became Christian leaders and authors. They are now called: Apostolic Fathers. In their works, we find quotes from the gospels. This confirms what we should expect, that the gospels already existed at that time. The apostolic fathers themselves guarantee the authenticity of the gospels, their authorship, and useful information about their dating. By reading from these authors, we can understand how seriously they took it, and how much they were committed to preserving the original message, fighting and preventing heresies.
The gospels are dated before 70
The Bible shows us that all the messianic prophecies of the Old Testament are fulfilled in Jesus. In the 1950s archaeologists found the Dead Sea Scrolls. These ancient manuscripts contain the Old Testament. Scholars have determined that they were written more than one hundred years before the birth of Jesus. Sceptics respond that this proves that, in the future… We will travel through time!
In 70 AD, Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans. The temple was also destroyed. Jewish historian Josephus tells about this event in his book Antiquities of the Jews. The destruction of the temple completely changed Jewish people’s life. Many buildings in the city were destroyed. Between six hundred thousand and one million Jews died as a result of fighting and starvation. The survivors were enslaved and deported. The temple was destroyed and looted. Sacrificial rituals in the temple were stopped and never started again. The temple was never rebuilt again. The priests, who previously held political power, lost it, maintaining only aristocratic privileges. The rabbis, scholars of the Torah, assumed the leadership. Since then, in modern Judaism animal sacrifices are no longer carried out, but, alternatively, the Torah is studied. In the gospels (Matthew 24, Luke 21, Mark 13). Jesus predicts the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, but the authors do not mention the fulfilment of the prophecy. This is evidence that the authors were writing before 70 when these events had not yet occurred.
Luke talks about his sources
Luke wrote the gospel by interviewing eyewitnesses. Anyway, they sometimes complained because Luke was too slow in taking notes. Once asked, Luke commented, “It’s not easy to be quick when you write … On stone tablets!”
Luke, at the beginning of his gospel, speaks about his sources. Luke claims to have received the information from the disciples, who saw the events with their own eyes. This means that Luke put these testimonies in writing, while these sources were still alive.
Dating of the Acts
In the book of Acts, there is no mention of Paul’s death, nor of the persecution of the Christians by the Roman empire. Archaeologists recently found some texts. There we find some comments on the book from contemporary readers. In one we read: “The ending is disappointing. It’s much worse than season one.” In another the publishing house answers “The takings are too low… Series cancelled… There won’t be a third part”.
When early Christians began to preach the divinity of Jesus, the priests began to persecute them. According to the priests, saying that Jesus was God was blasphemy. According to the Mosaic law, this sin was punishable by death. During this first phase of the persecution, the Romans were neutral and sometimes friendly towards the Christians. But in 64 AD, Emperor Nero officially started persecuting Christians. At that time, anyone publicly claiming to be Christian would be arrested and killed. The book of Acts is related to the first phase of the persecution. There is no evidence in it showing persecution by the Roman Empire. This is evidence that the book was finished before 64.
Furthermore, in the book of Acts, we read that Stephen and James, brother of John, were killed by the Jews. From the apostolic fathers, we know that Paul and Peter were killed in Rome together between 64 and 67. But the book of Acts ends during Paul’s arrests in Rome, awaiting trial. Since Paul’s death is not mentioned, we can conclude that the book of Acts was finished while Paul was still alive.
Dating of the Gospel of Luke
News from the experts on the dating of Luke’: “If Luke were still alive… he would be very old!”
In Acts, Luke informs us that this is his second book, written after the gospel. We can therefore also date the Gospel of Luke a few years before 64: Acts (around 62 AD), Luke’s Gospel (around 60 AD).
Dating of the Gospel of Mark
Mark shows in his gospel his minimalist style. He was a coherent person. In fact, he used to wear… only a sheet!
The gospel of Luke contains parts of the gospel of Mark. Therefore we can think that Mark’s gospel was written earlier. We know from extra-biblical sources that Mark collected Peter’s preachings and wrote his gospel in Rome. In 49 Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome. The decree ended in 54, after the death of the emperor. So we have two possibilities: Mark was in Rome before 49, or after 54. From Paul’s letters to the Romans, written in 56, we can see that Peter was not yet in Rome, since his name does not appear among the greetings. So, in this case, Mark would have written between 57 and 60. While in the first case, it would be between 40 and 49.
Dating of the Gospel of Matthew
Matthew was a tax collector. In his gospel he makes us understand that salvation is like taxes. Everyone is required to make… his declaration on time.
Eusebius dates the gospel of Matthew in 41. The book was written in Judea in Aramaic. Evidence that it’s so early can be found in James’ letters. Those are dated around 45. In them we find parts of the Gospel of Matthew paraphrased. This shows that James had this gospel available when he wrote his letters. Further evidence is found in the passage where Matthew lists the twelve disciples. Here Matthew uses the present tense, showing that, at that time, all of them were still alive.
Dating of the Gospel of John
What do mould and the pool of Bethesda have in common? Both have been used for healing… And for dating something!
Internal evidence shows that John was written before 70. John 5:2 is written in the present tense while John is talking about the pool of Bethesda, in whose waters some sick people were miraculously cured. This structure was destroyed, along with the rest of the city, in 70. This structure existed for real, and archaeologists managed to locate it, bringing its ruins back to light. Today we can visit it in Jerusalem. So John was written when the pool was still standing, i.e. before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.
Conclusion
A lady is praying and complaining to God. Lord! My life is so predictable! When she opens her eyes, Jesus appears and says to her, “If only I could tell you! When I was born they had already written my biography… my In the Old Testament!”
We have evidence that all the gospels are completed before 70. Therefore, between Jesus’ resurrection, and the gospels there is a maximum of 30 years. Historians consider the biography of Alexander the Great historically reliable. Considering that it was written only one hundred years after his death, 10 to 30 years is a very short time. There are also cases of biographies of Roman emperors, written even two hundred years later, but still considered reliable by scholars. In this scenario, the gospels are to be considered early testimonies of the life of Jesus. This is important because it means that most of the people mentioned in the gospel accounts were still alive at the time they were finished. It also means that, if the authors had written anything false or incorrect, interested parties or enemies of Christians could have publicly denied it. For example, in all four gospels, it is said that Joseph of Arimathea offered his tomb for Jesus’ burial. If this had not been true, it would have been easy for the priests to deny this statement by having Joseph speak the truth. We will see in the following posts that many important information arrived unchanged, thanks to the disciples’ memorization of Jesus’ teachings. When skeptics put forward the hypothesis of legend it is good to consider that there is no other historical text as reliable and close to the events narrated as the New Testament.
Joseph of Arimathea offered his tomb. Jesus offered his life. I would offer you a coffee… But I left my wallet at home!
Thanks for the coffee… And see you in the next post!
2 thoughts on “Gospels are early witnesses”
Comments are closed.