When was John the gospel writer born?

Answer 1

A discovery in 1935 of a scrap of papyrus in Egypt which contained parts of John moved its date to around 125 AD. This would mean an even earlier original writting some suggesting 110 AD to allow time to copy and carry to Egypt. Conservatives date it to 85-95 AD while others even earlier to 70 AD due to a verse in John 5:2 about Jerusalem not being destroyed yet. Lastly, John himself, is thought to have died between 95-100 AD at a very old age. As Christ began His ministry when 30 years old and some have dated this to be in 27 AD, John who was the youngest (12-16 in Jewish custom of being a man), then John would have been born in the first/second decade of the 1st Century.Like other writings when the author doesn't identify himself by name, there are often clues given in the context that will help to do this for us. Consider John 21:19-24 where the author calls himself, 'the disciple whom Jesus loved.' This designation occurs only 4 other times in this book. 'This was the disciple who...wrote these things (21:24). So the author had to be one of the twelve Apostles as he is described as leaning on Jesus' bosom at the Last Supper (Mark 14:17).

Answer 2

Like all the New Testament gospels, John's Gospel was written anonymously and only attributed by the Church Fathers to the apostle whose name it now bears, later in the second century. However, scholars say the Gospel could not have been written by an eyewitness to the events it portrays, which means that its author could not have been the apostle John. It is even possible that John had more than one author, working together.

John's Gospel was written early in the second century. The discovery of the papyrus fragment known as P52 in 1935 led to speculation that John was more likely to have been written by the end of the first century, because of an initial date estimate for the P52 fragment of 100-150 CE, but this has since been revised to 125-175 CE - with the proviso that any serious consideration of the window of possible dates for P52 must include dates in the later second and early third centuries. On this basis, a second-century date of authorship of John's Gospel is secure.

Since few commoners lived beyond their fifties in the first century, 'John' would probably have been in his thirties or forties, and would perhaps have been born between 70 and 90 CE.

Answer 3

Writing Completed: c. 98 C.E.