[Mrs. Don-o]

Of course there's scholarly controversy, but as I understand it, Mark and Luke were written between 68-85 AD, Mattthew and John between 80-100 AD. Since John died ca. 100 AD, that would be the last possible date.

Since Jesus died ca. 30 AD, the time span between his death and the completion of all 4 written Gospels would have only been about 70 years. That might have been only a few years after the death of Jesus' mother Mary.

Excuse the pedantry, but the significance of this is that all Four Gospels were completed well within the lifetime of msny people who knew Jesus well and were first-hand witnesses.

[Monterrosa-24]

“...all Four Gospels were completed well within the lifetime of msny people who knew Jesus...”

Yes indeed Mrs. Don-o. Even if we cede the latest possible date for John usually put forth as 125 AD then that would still put it within the life of many whose parents were alive when Christ taught. But if we look to the earlier date for Mark it chould have been 55 AD meaning that 25 year old followers of the Lord on Earth would have been only 50 at the time Mark was writing.

[I still care]

There has been a lot of argument that the gospels were written much earlier. I tend to believe this. The various arguments I’ve read make a lot of sense to me, and I know liberal theologians love to date things later to help them explain away some of the power of the predictions. Earlier dating also explains the meaning of certain verses better.

For instance, Acts is considered a continuation of Luke, and Paul was still alive at the end of Acts, and we know he died about the year 64. So Luke must be earlier than that.