Posted on 07/15/2008 4:35:15 PM PDT by Salvation
Many people ask, "When was the Bible written?" It's a common question, and the answer shouldn't be so hard to find!
This article contains the likely dates of composition for the various books of the Bible.
Of course, the Bible contains many different books, written at different times by different people. This means that sometimes there isn't a straightforward answer to the question when was the Bible written.
The theology faculty at the University of Navarre, Spain, put together an outstanding Bible commentary called the Navarre Bible. These volumes also contain a number of excellent introductory essays about the Bible. I've used a number of sources for this article, but the bulk of this information can be found in the essays "General Introduction to the Bible" and "Introduction to the Books of the New Testament", both found in the Gospels & Acts volume of the Navarre Bible.
It's hardest to answer the question, "When was the Bible written?" for the Old Testament books. In fact , their authorship spans a period of about twelve centuries!
The individual books of the Old Testament were written at different times. Scholars say that some of the earliest individual books were written down probably beginning near the end of the thirteenth century BC — perhaps 1200 BC or so.
The last Old Testament book to be written was 1 Maccabees, probably written around 100 BC.
It's easier to answer, "When was the Bible written?" for the New Testament books.
The New Testament was written within a much shorter timespan, more or less in the years between 50 AD and 100 AD. While none of the books contains a specific date of composition, scholars have managed to assign dates that are fairly accurate. Some are quite exact, while others are more approximate.
This chart shows likely dates of composition for the New Testament books. A question mark indicates that there is significant uncertainty about the actual authorship or the exact date of composition.
And of course, regardless of uncertainty about dates or even about exact authorship, the Catholic Church affirms that all texts of the Bible are divinely inspired and teach "solidly, faithfully and without error that truth which God wanted put into sacred writings for the sake of salvation." (Vatican II, Dei Verbum, 11)
| Date composed | Book | Author |
| 51-52 AD | 1 and 2 Thess | Paul |
| 50-55 | [early version of Gospel of Mt in Aramaic] | Matthew |
| 50-60 | Jas | James |
| 54 | Gal | Paul |
| 57 | 1 Cor | Paul |
| 57-58 | 2 Cor | Paul |
| 57-58 | Rom | Paul |
| 60-70 | Mk | Mark |
| 62? | Phil | Paul |
| 62 | Col, Philem, Eph | Paul |
| 62-70 | Lk | Luke |
| 63 | Acts | Luke |
| 64? | 1 Pet | Peter |
| 64 | 2 Pet | Peter? |
| 65 | 1 Tim and Tit | Paul |
| 65? | Heb | Paul? |
| 66 | 2 Tim | Paul |
| 68-70 | Mt | Matthew |
| 70? | Jude | Jude Thaddeus |
| 85-95 | Rev | John |
| 95-100 | 1,2, and 3 Jn | John |
| 98-100 | Jn | John |
(This information is mainly drawn from the Navarre Bible, "Introduction to the Books of the New Testament")
Another good page answering when was the Bible written is available on the Web site of St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Mississippi. (They also have an excellent online Catechism of the Catholic Church.)
I hope that this brief article has helped to answer the question of when was the Bible written. It's important to know that the Biblical texts are deeply anchored in historical facts.
But it's more important to read the Bible! Not only is it a literary treasure, but it contains the living Word of God. Your life depends on it!
(St. Jerome)
| BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT |
| BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT | |||
| BOOK | PROBABLE DATE | BOOK | DATE |
| Genesis | c.1250-1200 B.C. | Matthew | c.40-60 |
| Exodus | c.1250-1200 B.C. | Mark | c.45-60 |
| Leviticus | c.1250-1200 B.C. | Luke | 57-60 |
| Numbers | c.1250-1200 B.C. | John | c.40-65 |
| Deuteronomy | c.1250-1200 B.C. | Acts | 57-62 |
| Joshua | c.1200 B.C. | Romans | 57 |
| Judges | c.1200 B.C. | 1 Corinthians | 55 |
| Ruth | c.1000 B.C. | 2 Corinthians | 56 |
| 1st Samuel | c.700 B.C. | Galatians | 56 |
| 2nd Samuel | c.700 B.C. | Ephesians | 58 |
| 1st Kings | c.600 B.C. | Philippians | 58 |
| 2nd Kings | c.600 B.C. | Colossians | 58 |
| 1st Chronicles | c.350 B.C. | 1 Thessalonians | early 50 |
| 2nd Chronicles | c.350 B.C. | 2 Thessalonians | 50-51 |
| Ezra | c.400 B.C. | 1 Timothy | 55 |
| Nehemiah | c.400 B.C. | 2 Timothy | 58 |
| Tobit | c.200 B.C. | Titus | 57 |
| Judith | c.150 B.C. | Philemon | 58 |
| Esther | c.300 B.C. | Hebrews | c.67 |
| 1st Maccabees | c.100 B.C. | James | 40's |
| 2nd Maccabees | c.125 B.C. | 1 Peter | 65 |
| Job | c.500 B.C. | 2 Peter | 61-62 |
| Psalms | c.500 B.C. | 1 John | 57-62 |
| Proverbs | c.450 B.C. | 2 John | 57-62 |
| Ecclesiastes | c.300 B.C. | 3 John | 57-62 |
| Song of Songs | c.450 B.C. | Jude | 61-62 |
| Wisdom | c.100 B.C. | Revelation | 68-70 |
| Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) | c.180 B.C. | ||
| Isaiah | c.700 B.C. | ||
| Jermiah | c.585 B.C. | ||
| Lamentations | c.550 B.C. | ||
| Baruch | c.550 B.C. | ||
| Ezekiel | c.590 B.C. | ||
| Daniel | c.165 B.C. | ||
| Hosea | c.750 B.C. | ||
| Joel | c.400 B.C. | ||
| Amos | c.750 B.C. | ||
| Obadiah | c.500 B.C. | ||
| Jonah | c.450 B.C. | ||
| Micah | c.740 B.C. | ||
| Nahum | c.612 B.C. | ||
| Habakkuk | c.600 B.C. | ||
| Zephaniah | c.620 B.C. | ||
| Haggai | c.520 B.C. | ||
| Zechariah | c.520 B.C. | ||
| Malachi | c.450 B.C. | ||
Source of dates of New Testament: John A. T. Robinson, "Redating The New Testament" 1976.
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Excellent! Bump!
When the Canonical books were chosen. I don’t know the date.
There will be someone who does know that.
Beginning Catholic: Catholic Morality: Life in Christ [Ecumenical]
Beginning Catholic: When Was The Bible Written? [Ecumenical]
Just found the date of the Council of Trent in a CUF article about the Canon of the Bible.
I’m 65 and have been a practicing Catholic all my life. I admit that I am no biblical scholar. My brother-in-law was visiting with us for ten days earlier this month. He is a strict fundamentalist and is a total bible scholar. He is convinced that the universe is only 6,000 years old. I asked him what he thought of all the carbon dating, and of scientists saying that the earth was 4.5 billion years old (I got that from a geology course in college). He said that’s now how the bible counts time. His mother was in my living room while I was showing her some photos from a DVD on my TV. She asked me about one picture of Victoria Falls and I said that it had been doing that for millions of years. My B-i-L interjected, and said that no, it’s only been there for 6,000 years. Can anyone here shed some light on where he comes up with that number?
There are several schools to Young Earth Creatinism, they added the generations of all the people named in the Bible in the geneologies, add 2000 years and you get a number.
It’s based upon a reading, a myopic reading in my opinion, of Genesis 5 and 11. If you add up all the generations and carry them forward until modernity, 6,000 is a close approximation.
There are a few complications: The Pentatuch (Genesis through Deuteronomy) are actually a combination of writings from two eras, the latter contemporaneous with the Exile and return (appx 590 BC). So the table perhaps oversimplifies by listing only the earliest date. Another slight problem is that Isaiah is believed to be both pre-and post exilic (Chs 1-39 pre-Exile), Chs 40 - during Exile.
Regarding the New Testament, in the first table in the opening post I like the “early Aramaic version of Matthew” much better than what the scholars simply call “Q”. This would really be much of the material common to Matthew and Luke but not found in Mark.
I saw different references for the Old Testament too. Very interesting to me. And I think it had those two eras separated. I think it was on wiki
I’m not sure of what was in your brother-in-law’s mind.
I’ve heard some say the entire universe was created in six 24 hour days and calculating back through Bible chronology and time periods they arrive at 6,000 years or so to the creation of Adam.
The belief is that the “days” of creation of Genesis can only mean days of 24 hours.
The poster ist a preterist?
Why do you figure it was a preterist? (Many Catholics are partial preterists: they believe that there is a sense in which a prophesy is describing current conditions... but usually to demonstrate a larger theme which will come to full fruition at a future date. For instance: the Beast of Revelations is Nero, whose Hebrew name (QSR NRN) adds up to 666. BUT Nero serves merely as a fore-runner for an apocalyptic repression.)
James Usshershalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach Adonai
My figuring was based on the observation that the chart shows all NT books being completed prior to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. Many futurists date many of John's books later than that (but still 1st century).
(P.S. I'm not Catholic, so I'm not familiar with the RCC take on this)
This might seem silly, but I have just begun to wonder who wrote the Books of Moses. I would guess it wasn’t Moses.
NAU Mark 12:26 "But regarding the fact that the dead rise again, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the burning bush, how God spoke to him, saying, 'I AM THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, AND THE GOD OF ISAAC, and the God of Jacob '? Yah'shua seems to think that Moses wrote the Torah.
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach Adonai
I would guess it was not entirely Moses. He might have written some of it, but his personal involvement would have ended part way through.
You doubt your L-rd and Savior ?
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach Adonai
Way too much third person. Where does it say Moses WROTE all that?
I’m not sure how preterism would affect the dating of the Gospel of John. I can agree that a date that early seems a little odd: the closing of the gospel addresses an expectation that the end of the world would occur before the death of Peter. That would seem to suggest that it was written after Peter died.
What I have a problem with is that both sets of dates are presented as if all the books were created instantaneous. If the date ranges are meant to indicate a process, they look more like a range of estimates. Matthew, John, and Revelations were created by a process which probably took decades:
John, for instance, is probably a compilation of liturgical readings created by John. Evidence for the gospel being a compilation includes its disjointedness: its individual episodes are very highly formed, and appear thematically arranged, but collectively overlap each other’s time frames. For instance, Jesus concludes his last supper discourse sermon in Ch. 14 to depart presumably for the Mount of Olives, but then in chapter 15 he continues in what appears to be a last supper discourse.
Revelations also seems to have a similar disjointed timeline, in spite of very heavily thematically unified readings. Some have even suggested that Revelations seems to include the writings of a previous author (John the Baptist?). (This shouldn’t be shocking: IIRC, John 1:1-5, 10-12, 14 a pre-Christian prophesy alluded to in the Dead Sea Scrolls, which is fulfilled by Christ, as explained in John 1:6-9, 13, 15-18.)
>> You doubt your L-rd and Savior ? <<
Jesus referred to “the book of Moses.” That’s hardly the same thing as saying that he insisted that Moses wrote the entire Pentateuch / Torah.
>> You doubt your L-rd and Savior ? <<
I understand that Moses did chiefly write the “five books of Moses.” I accept this, since I accept Jewish tradition of the origin of these books. But I would suggest this is an example of why you’re hard to get along with. The evidence you’ve provided simply doesn’t support the conclusion you make from it. (This is not to say that there isn’t good evidence.) But you suggest that if someone doesn’t support your conclusion, that they are denying Christ.
Get a good on-line Bible and search the New Testament
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach Adonai
for all the places that Yah'shua refers to Moses and read
for yourself with the Holy Spirit to illuminate the Word.
Are you unfamiliar with the use of Interrogative Sentences ?
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach Adonai
Yeah... and your interrogative sentences have the air of “are you going to agree with me, or are you going to deny Christ?” Are you familiar with the use of leading interrogatives? Or loaded questions?
Yeah... and your interrogative sentences have the air of “are you going to agree with me, or are you going to deny Christ?” Are you familiar with the use of leading interrogatives? Or loaded questions?
And, just for the record, it’s interesting you say, “interrogative sentences.” I know you just like to show off by using big or exotic words, but here you may just have revealed a little more truth then you intended. Interogative sentences are not necessarily questions.
C’mon, old FRiend.....he didn’t mean it that way.
Discuss the issues all you want, but do not make it personal.
Most timelines place the time of Moses around 1350-1450 BC.
So this article is implying that Moses didn’t write the Torah - aka the first five books. Then they are denying Christ, who quoted Moses’ writings often.
The Catholic title is “The Apocalypse of St. John.” The translation of “Apocalypse” to Revelation is a bit clumsy, inasmuch as that’s also a collective noun used to describe the entire bible. At the same time, the Apocalypse consists of several individual revelations. Catholics have adopted the more anglicized, Protestant titles of biblical books since Vatican II, so we do speak of “Revelation,” but once in a while a little discrimination between Revelation, and Revelations still pops out.
No, they are not denying that Moses really spoke those words. The four evangelists, quoted from the Old Testament according to whom they were teaching.
Matthew probably quotes the most in his Gospel, as Christ refers to the older texts. Remember that Christ was trying to convert the Israelites first. Mark doesn’t have quite so many Old Testament quotes, but they are still there.
Because Luke traveled with Paul, his Gospel is more historical for the upbringing and education of the Gentiles. He covers a lot of Christ’s stories in a different tone.
And lastly, John, with his dissertation on the Bread of Life has a totally different focus in some of his writings.
As to when the Old Testament was actually written down, I have been told by a priest that they probably did this when they were in exile in Babylon. Stories had been handed down person to person and family to family until that time.
Does this make sense or is it even more confusing? Check out some of the Bible links I posted, too. They have lots of information on the who, when, where, why and how of the Bible.
Understood. It’s a pet peeve of mine when folks don’t get the name of the book correct. The book starts out with the greek word “apokalupsis” - The apocalypse or unvealing of Jesus Christ, given to Him by the Father. I’m not saying this about you, but it irritates me to read liberal “Bible Scholars” criticizing Revelation and they don’t even get the name of the book correct.
Beginning Catholic: Books of the Catholic Bible: The Complete Scriptures [Ecumenical]
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