How old were Matthew Mark Luke John when they wrote the Gospels?

Answer 1

Assuming that the Authors were contemporary of Jesus, then:

1.There is little in the gospel (Matthew) itself to indicate with clarity the date of its composition. The majority of scholars date the gospel between the years 70 and 100.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Matthew

If Matthew is the real author of the Gospel ascribed to him, then he must be 100-130 yrs old when he wrote the book.

2.Since Mark may have been written around the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, around 70, Luke would not have been written before http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_luke

If Luke is the real author of the Gospel ascribed to him, then he must be 100+ yrs old when he wrote the book.

3."Most scholars agree on a range of c. 90-100 for when the gospel (John) was written, though dates as early as the 60s or as late as the 140s have been advanced by a small number of scholars. " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_john

If John is the real author of the Gospel ascribed to him, then he must be between 90-170 yrs old when he wrote the book.

4. "There is wide scholarly agreement that Mark was written sometime between the late 60s or the early 70s.[13] There are vocal minority groups that argue for earlier or later dates. However, as most scholars believe that either Matthew or Luke was written around the year 80 and used Mark as a source, they find a date past 75 unlikely."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_mark

If Mark is the real author of the Gospel ascribed to him, then he must be 105+ yrs old when he wrote the book

AnswerThe Gospels were written much earlier than previously thought for, among other things, the obvious problems with the ages of the authors, together with internal evidence.

The fact that the Book of Matthew, like the other synoptics, together with Acts does not report the AD 70 fall of Jerusalem, but has it as still future can mean one of two things. Either they were written before or long after this significant event (when it was no longer relevant). If one takes the most simply logical view that they were written before, this makes most sense of this historical setting.

Thus, all of the New Testament Gospel writers in order for them to be the authors, and some of them being actual direct eyewitnesses to the events they record, would have to be considerably younger than mentioned above, even if blessed with considerable longevity.

Answer 2

In spite of tradition, the four New Testament gospels were originally anonymous, but were attributed to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John later in the second century. One of the reasons the Gospels of Matthew and John could not have been written by the apostles Matthew or John is that it is clear that they were largely based on Mark's Gospel. An eyewitness would never need to rely so heavily on the testimony of someone who was not an eyewitness. Luke's Gospel was also based on Mark, which is inconsistent with the author having learnt about Jesus from the Apostle Paul. Finally, there are good reasons to believe that Mark's Gospel could not have been written by a companion of the apostle Paul.

As explained above, we do not know who wrote the four New Testament gospels and therefore do not know how old they were at the time of writing.