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)
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.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.