Atticus_Finch

I am interested in what is believed to be the earliest dates for the composition of the various NT books and the resulting chronological order of the books. It would be great to see a comparison between the information from non-believers, liberal theologians and conservative or fundamentalist theologians.

I would appreciate any information or links anybody has. It has always been my understanding, without much independent research, that Galatians was the first book of the NT. However, religioustolerance.org suggests that I Thess. was first. <a href="http://www.religioustolerance.org/resur_lt.htm" target="_blank">See here.</a>

Regards,

Finch

CX

I recommend picking up a good intro text. According to Udo Schnelle the rough chronological order is

1 Thess ca. 50 C.E.
1 Cor Spring of 55
2 Cor Late Fall 55
Gal Late Fall 55
Romans Spring 56
Phillipians ca. 60
Philemon ca. 61
GMk ca. 70 C.E.
Colossians ca. 70 C.E.
Ephesians ca. 80 - 90
Jude ca. 80 - 100
Hebrews ca. 80 - 90 C.E.
GMt ca. 90
GLk ca. 90
1 Peter ca. 90
2 John ca. 90
Revelation ca. 90 - 95
3 John ca. 91
1 John ca. 95
Acts ca. 90 - 100
2 Thess ca. 90 - 100
James ca. 90 - 100
Pastorals ca. 100
GJn ca. 100 - 110
2 Peter ca. 110

You should note that this is not the earliest dating, but the most widely accepted by biblical scholars.

[ December 19, 2002: Message edited by: CX ]</p>

Yuri Kuchinsky

Hi there, Finch, and other folks!

I've been taking a bit of a break from the Net, but now I'm back.

Finch, in regard to your question, here's the best short answer that I can give. Speaking strictly from an objective scientific viewpoint, we don't really know for sure how much in the Pauline epistles was really written by Paul. Probably not all that much. The rest was added up ca 100-150 CE.

And as for the gospels, in the shape that we now see them, they're clearly 2nd century products. Most of this stuff probably dates to 130-180 CE.

That's an objective scientific answer, mind you. Alas, hardly any of modern NT scholarship can be described as science.

Check my webpage for more details about all this. Especially see about the Aramaic gospels. As I see it, that's a major cover-up in NT studies. These Aramaic texts are clearly earlier than the standard Greek texts, and yet nobody is paying any attention to them! I'm planning to post more stuff about this soon.

Cheers,

Yuri.

*** I doubt, therefore I might be. ***