Claims Examined · Bible & Manuscripts
The Gospels were written centuries after Jesus.
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All four Gospels were in circulation by the early second century at the latest, and most scholars date them between about AD 65 and 100. A serious minority, including the scholar John A. T. Robinson, argues they were all written before Jerusalem fell in AD 70.
Where this claim comes from
A common online claim, often tied to the idea that the Gospels were invented or edited by the later church.
Weighing the evidence
Supports the claim
- Our oldest complete Gospel manuscripts date from the third and fourth centuries.
- Scholars disagree about the exact dates of each Gospel.
Counts against it
- Christian writers around AD 95–120 already quote or describe the Gospels; Papias names Mark and Matthew.
- The papyrus fragment P52, containing John 18, is usually dated to the second century.
- Mainstream scholarship dates Mark around AD 65–73 and John around AD 90–100.
- Acts ends with Paul still alive in Rome around AD 62, which early-date scholars read as a clue to when Luke and Acts were written.
Discussion
Whether the Gospels were written within living memory of Jesus matters. If they came centuries later, they would be legend. They didn’t. The real scholarly debate is about decades, not centuries.
The outer limit: who was quoting them?
Early Christian writers give us a ceiling. Papias, a bishop writing around AD 110–130, reports what he had been told about how Mark and Matthew came to be written.1 The tiny papyrus P52, with a few lines of John 18, is usually dated to the second century; its exact date is debated, which we note.2 Either way, the Gospels were already copied and circulating long before “centuries” had passed.
The mainstream view
Most New Testament scholars place Mark around AD 65–73, Matthew and Luke around AD 80–90, and John around AD 90–100. On that view, all four were written while people who had known Jesus, or known his followers, were still alive.
The case for writing before AD 70
Some scholars argue for even earlier dates. Their strongest points: Jerusalem and its Temple were destroyed in AD 70, a catastrophe that none of the Gospels describes as having happened, even though Jesus predicts it (). Acts ends abruptly with Paul under house arrest in Rome around AD 62, without telling us how his trial ended. And John describes a pool in Jerusalem in the present tense ().3
Sources reviewed
- primaryEusebius of Caesarea, Ecclesiastical History. Book 3.39 (quoting Papias).
- secondaryBrent Nongbri, The Use and Abuse of P52. Harvard Theological Review 98, 2005, 23–48.
- secondaryJohn A. T. Robinson, Redating the New Testament. SCM Press, 1976.
Review history
- First published.