When did Matthew Mark Luke and John write the gospels?

Answer 1

It's unknown which gospel actually written first, although the order of inclusion in the christian Bible is established. The estimated time when the gospels were written is collectively sometime between 70 and 100 A.D.

For instance, in Matthew (2:23) the Gospels talk about Nazareth. While the area has been inhabited for thousands of years, the actual town of Nazareth didn't exist until after 70 A.D.

This is a reason of conflicts between Gospels? Mark's Gospel is generally accepted as the earliest of the gospels. According to the respected New Testament scholar Raymond E. Brown, most biblical scholars believe it to have been written approximately 68-73 CE.

The reason why Mark's gospel is considered the earliest (around 69-72 AD) is because it is believed that Luke and Matthew used much of Mark in writing their own gospel as so much of Mark's account is found in both of the others. However, there is much evidence for another account which both Luke and Matthew used - called 'Q' (from 'Quelle..who?) which is now lost and the author unknown. Some scholars believe that this account predated even Mark to be written in the 50s, but this is based on circumstantial evidence rather than firm fact. The last gospel to be written is most likely John - around 90 - 100 AD when John was very elderly. There are other non-canonical gospels (like Thomas, Philip and so on) but scholars believe that these were written much later (possibly even centuries?) and lack sufficient providence to be included in The Bible.

Incidentally, Mark's gospel is not the earliest Christian writing in the New Testament. Many of Paul's letters predate Mark's gospel by decades. The earliest, believed to be Paul's first letter to the Church in Thessalonika, in modern day Greece, ("1 Thessalonians") , is believed to date from the early 50s AD, just 20 years after Christ and around 17 after Paul's conversion.

Finally, whilst the large town of Nazareth did not exist until around 70AD after its rebuilding and expansion by the Romans, the village of Nazareth in Galilee was well known even in Old Testament times as it was the remnant of a very large settlement razed by the Assyrians around 720 BC.

Answer 2

Scholars believe that the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were written between 70-100 AD. Matthew and John were traditionally believed to have been written by the apostles of the same name, while Mark and Luke are thought to have been written by companions of the apostles.

Answer 3

Other Answers from our community:

Josh McDowell in 'The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict' p52 provides a relatively up to date table showing the current scholarly thinking on the dates for the New Testament books in question. McDowell gives two tables to give the dates reflecting the thinking of both Liberal (tending towards a later date) and Conservative dating (tending towards an earlier date)

Conservative Dating. Matthew AD 70 -80 (Harrison)

Mark AD 50-60 (Harnack)

AD 58-65 (T W Manson)

Luke early 60's (Harrison)

Liberal Dating. Matthew AD 80-100 (Kummel)

Mark AD 70 "

Luke AD 70-90 "

McDowell also notes that many conservatives are moving to even earlier dates, such as the position taken by the great biblical archaeologist W F Albright: "We can say emphatically that there is no longer any solid basis for dating any book of the New Testament after about AD 80...' (from Recent Discoveries in Bible Lands, New York:Funk and Wagnalls, 1955. p.136)

In relation to the dating of the gospels often anti-supernatural presuppositions pre-determine the thinking of scholars. One example of this is the assumption that predictive prophecy cannot occur. Thus other explanations other than that Jesus predicted the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD must be devised and are required rather than looking at the straightforward gospel witness.

Presuppositional negation

First of all, most scholars do not rule out the possibility of miracles, but they do look for the most probable explanation. They must therefore consider the alternative explanation that there was no miraculous prophecy - that the book was merely written after the fact.

However, for the purposes of answering this question it is possible to suppose that Jesus predicted the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. But, consistency requires us to suppose that Jesus then predicted the end of the world within the lifetime of his followers. Such a failed prediction by Jesus is unacceptable to both Christians and non-believers alike.

Whether Jesus prophesied other events is not the point: it is not acceptable that he predicted two related events, one of which did not come true.

Answer:

The first guide to the date of authorship of the two originally anonymous gospels is that they are now known to have been based substantially on Mark's Gospel. Mark is believed to have been written around 70 CE, so Matthew and Luke were both somewhat later. It is also now known that John was loosely based on Luke's Gospel, so Luke must have been written before John, which is known to have been written well before the middle of the second century.

Based on internal evidence, New Testament scholars say that Matthew's Gospel was written during the 80s of the first century, although Raymond E. Brown (An Introduction to the New Testament) says that some years should be allowed either side off this decade.

Luke's Gospel was written in the nineties of the first century or very early in the second century.

Answer 4

We do not really know when the Gospel According to St Mark was written. However, some Christians believe that the Gospel was written around 60 CE, or even earlier.

On the other hand, there is considerable evidence that the author we know as Mark wrote the first of the Gospels approximately 70 CE. One of the internal clues to the date of Mark's Gospel is at Mark 13:2, where Jesus was said to prophesy the destruction of the Temple, an event that occurred in 70 CE. According to Mark, Jesus went on to predict the end of the world within the lifetime of his followers. If Jesus had really prophesied the destruction of the Temple, he would have been correct, but he would have been in error about the imminent end of times. Since it can not be accepted that Jesus made predictions that were capable of being in error, these prophecies must have originated with Mark, writing at a time when he would have known of the destruction or imminent destruction of the temple. Other clues in the Gospel indicate that it could not have been written later than the early 70s.

On this evidence, Mark's Gospel was written approximately 70 CE. A slightly earlier date is possible. A date in the early 70s is also possible, but most scholars do not place the year very much later.

Answer 5

The exact date is unknown. It has traditionally been taught it was written between 120 CE.

Answer The Gospel of John was written in the late 90's; estimated as a 98 CE record. AND "Date: c CE 100-120

Note that the ancient Ryland's papyrus with its short extract from John's Gospel is dated to the first half of the 2nd century. This question is best answered with research and not opinion or general statements. One does need to know, however, that there is not an definitive answer.

Answer

The Gospel of John was originally anonymous and the Church Fathers only attributed it to the disciple John later in the second century. At one stage it was said that Cerinthus, the founder of a gnostic school, had written it, so the attribution to John must have been quite late in the second century. Modern scholars say there is no good reason to accept that attribution, and that the gospel could not have been written by an eyewitness to the events the gospel describes.

John's Gospel was the last New Testament gospel to be written. There is good evidence that this gospel was inspired by Luke's Gospel, which was written around the end of the first century, and John is generally considered to have been written sometime in the first two decades of the second century.

Answer

Around 90-96 a.d.

ANSWER

John's Gospel was written in 65AD, and was the last one written. Reasons are as follows:-

Most scholars date this gospel c. 90s-100. There is a growing number of scholars, however, who place it sometime before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE. Apart from J. A. T. Robinson's radical redating of John to the fifth decade of the first century (a view which, to my knowledge, almost no scholar has found palatable), the vast bulk of NT scholars can be put into two camps: 90s or 60s.

2. An Early Date (60s) There are a number of data which strongly suggest a date in the 60s, chief among them are the following. (1) The destruction of Jerusalem is not mentioned. This fits extremely well with a date before 66 CE. (2) The topographical accuracy of pre-70 Palestine argues that at least some of the material embedded in the gospel comes from before the Jewish War. (3) There is much primitive terminology used in this gospel. E.g., Jesus' followers are called "disciples" in John, not apostles. (4) The conceptual and verbal parallels with Qumran argue strongly for an overtly Jewish document which fits well within the first century milieu. (5) The date of P55 at c. 100-150, coupled with the date of Papyrus Egerton 2 at about the same time-a document which employed both John and the synoptics-is almost inconceivable if John is to be dated in the 90s. (6) John's literary independence from and apparent lack of awareness of the synoptic gospels argue quite strongly for an early date. Indeed, this independence/ignorance argues that all the gospels were written within a relatively short period of time, with Matthew and Luke having the good fortune of seeing and using Mark in their composition. (7) Finally, there is a strong piece of internal evidence for an early date. In John 5:2 the author says that "there is in Jerusalem, by the sheep-gate, a pool (the one called Bethesda in Hebrew) which has five porticoes." Without discussing all the interpretations possible for this verse suffice it to say that (a) the verb "is" ( ejstin) cannot be a historical present, and (b) the pool was destroyed in 70 CE.35 By far the most plausible conclusion is that this gospel was written before 70 CE. In sum, we believe that a pre-70 date for the Fourth Gospel is the most probable one. Further, we believe that this gospel should be dated late in 65 or even in 66, for the following two reasons: (a) it is doubtful that it should be dated after 66, because otherwise the lack of an Olivet Discourse in which many of the prophecies were at that time coming true, is inexplicable; (b) the gospel should perhaps be dated after Peter's death, as we shall see when we examine the purpose

[From article "The Gospel of John: Introduction, Argument, Outline" By: Daniel B. Wallace]

[Wade through ''John 5:2 and the Date of the Fourth Gospel ... again'' By: Daniel B. Wallace ]

Also strongly recommend "The Untold Story Of The New Testament Church" by Frank Viola in 2004; ISBN 0-7684-2236-1. It has not been downloaded onto the internet and therefore at present is only available in book form

Answer 6

Another answer from our community:The Gospel According to Mark was the earliest New Testament gospel written, and is considered by most scholars to date from approximately 68-73 CE. Some believe that the noncanonical Gospel According to Thomas may predate Mark, but that is a minority view among scholars. The 'Q' Document, sometimes called the 'Q' Gospel, is a hypothetical sayings document that could predate Mark, but this is uncertain. Matthew and Luke are generally considered to have been based largely on Mark and 'Q'.

Another answer:

A:This is a hotly debated issue with the majority of scholars saying that Mark was written first, although some hold out for Matthew. This conclusion is based upon length (Mark is the shortest), language (Mark's language includes some slang terms), and view of Jesus (Mark's gospel is the only one where the touch of Jesus fails to heal on the first try, so to speak). There are other considerations based upon textual analysis.

Many believe that there was a book currently called Q that was a handbook of the sayings of Jesus that was in circulation and used when the gospel of Mark was written. 9Q supplies the words and Mark supplies the deeds, essentially). But that is another lengthy scholarly discussion.

Another answer:

It is hard to know exactly which of the four gospels were written first. Matthew, with it context and expressions, put the range of writing somewhere between A.D. 58-68. Mark is sometimes to be thought of as written first, but this is uncertain because the idea is based on the tradition that it was written before the martyrdom of Peter in A.D. 64. Hence, it is dates between A.D. 55-65. Luke, who also wrote the Book of Acts (his "second book"), is thought to have written it sometime during Peter's first imprisonment but before the destruction of Jerusalem (A.D. 62-70). John is thought to have compiled his gospel and other letters while in exile on the island of Patmos in A.D. 90.

The important takeaway is that these extent manuscripts are written during the lifetime of the eyewitnesses and are historically, geographically, and contextually accurate.

Another answer:

The First written Gospel is Mark.

Answer 7

Another answer from our community: it is generally believed that

• Matthew was written before A.D. 70 and as early as A.D. 50.
• Mark is said to be the earliest gospel with an authorship of between A.D. 55 to A.D. 70.
• It is concluded that Luke was written before A.D. 62.
• John is the last of the gospels and appears to have been written in the 80's to 90's.

Answer 8

The Gospel According to Mark was the earliest New Testament gospel written, and is considered by most scholars to date from approximately 68-73 CE. Some believe that the noncanonical Gospel According to Thomas may predate Mark, but that is a minority view among scholars. The 'Q' Document, sometimes called the 'Q' Gospel, is a hypothetical sayings document that could predate Mark, but this is uncertain. Matthew and Lukeare generally considered to have been based largely on Markand 'Q'.

Answer 9

A:New Testament scholars know that Mark's Gospel was the first New Testament gospel to be written, simply because it has been well established that the other three gospels were based, directly (Matthew and Luke) or indirectly (John) on that gospel. It has also been established that Mark was written approximately 70 CE.

There is uncertainty about the sequence of the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas and the hypothetical 'Q' Gospel, both of which were probably written about the same time as Mark and might have been somewhat earlier. These were sayings documents and contained no narrative about the life and mission of Jesus, and made no mention of the crucifixion or resurrection of Jesus.

Answer 10

The overwhelming consensus of New Testament scholars is that Mark's Gospel was the first New Testament gospel to be written. It is possible that the sayings gospel known as the Gospel of Thomas could have been written even earlier, but this gospel is not in the New Testament.