AD 60–100: The Composition of the Gospels
AD 60–100: The Composition of the Gospels
When speaking of the death and resurrection of Jesus, most evangelical apologists begin with the reliability of the four Gospels. A popular approach often argues that these books were written either by apostles (as with Matthew and John) or their close associates (as with Mark and Luke) and that these volumes were written between AD 60 and 100. The point is that since these books were written 30 to 70 years after Jesus' death, they provide excellent material for reconstructing the earliest years of the Christian faith. As such we can learn credible information regarding Jesus' crucifixion as well as His resurrection appearances.
On the other hand, however, nonevangelical scholars generally dispute these specific authors although they change only slightly the dates of composition. They usually treat the four Gospels as anonymous documents although there are some notable exceptions.3 Scholars differ as to how much of the Gospel accounts reflect reliably historical information. Like the dates given by evangelicals, these books are usually dated between AD 60 and 100, although the critical tendency is to date the Synoptic Gospels a little later. Mark is often placed at about AD 70, while Matthew and Luke are dated about AD 80–85. There is widespread agreement regarding John, which is generally placed by all scholars in the last decade of the first century. Even critical scholars tend to differ only slightly from these common dates.4
How do these critical conclusions affect the defense of the resurrection mentioned above? Interestingly, in spite of questioning the authorship of the Gospels, critical scholars have also defended the historicity of the resurrection although they usually emphasize Paul's epistles.5 Even for those who prefer the Gospel traditions, we are somewhere between three and seven decades after the events in question. Especially since we are dealing with the events of ancient history, this is a relatively short period of time. After all, the well-known biography of Alexander the Great, included by Plutarch in his Lives, was composed approximately four centuries after Alexander's death.