| Weren't the Gospels written down many years after the deaths of their 'authors'? |
| This was a commonly-held belief by critics of the Bible for many years,
but the evidence shows that all four Gospels were written during the lives
of their authors. Portions of a copy of the book of Matthew have been accurately
dated to previous to 69 AD, using a method which involves comparing the style
of writing to those known to come from certain places and time periods. It's
a method which is amazingly accurate and has never been called into question,
except when it proved such an early date for a copy of the Gospel of Matthew,
and even then no one could refute the evidence.
We also know that the Gospel of Luke was written before the book of Acts (which Luke also wrote), and we can easily determine that Acts was written prior to 67 AD. We know this because the Apostle Paul was killed by Nero in 67 AD, and yet his death is not recorded in the book of Acts, when it logically would have been since Paul is the prominent figure in Acts (the same way that we could conclude that if a biography of Elvis doesn't mention his death, it was written before Elvis died). Considering the events mentioned in Acts, we can actually conclude that it was completed between 60-62 AD. Since Luke's Gospel was written before Acts, we can logically conclude that the Gospel of Luke was written prior to 60-62 AD. And practically all scholars will agree that the Gospel of Mark was written before both of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, so we know that Mark's Gospel was also written prior to 60-62 AD (Mark died in 62 or 63 AD). John's Gospel was the last one written, but the historian Ignatius records that the Gospel was being widely taught from in 110 AD. Most scholars agree it was written between 70-90 AD, no more than sixty years after the time Jesus walked the earth, but still within the lifetime of John. The earliest date generally accepted by scholars for the death of John is 98 AD, though many believe he was still alive in the early 2nd century. |