First-century gospels, not 300 years later

Papyri, quotes, and 2nd-century authors

Britannica organizes the dates. The oldest of the four is Mark, also the shortest, and it places it in the years before the destruction of Jerusalem, before 70. Matthew wrote in Greek somewhat after 70 and had Mark's text in front of him.

With Luke things are less clear: there are those who place it between 63 and 70, and others a little later. John closes the series, around the year 100 and probably from Ephesus.

Bart Ehrman denies that these texts are inspired and yet dates Mark around 70, Matthew and Luke between 80 and 85, and John between 90 and 95. Not even with his dates do we reach the 4th century.

The library of the University of Manchester keeps a tiny papyrus: it measures less than 9 centimeters by 6 and carries, on one side, John 18:31-33; on the other, John 18:37-38. The one who first published it placed it between 100 and 150; later studies bring it closer to 200.

Even with the latest date we are more than a century away from 330. And since it is a copy and not the original, John had to be written earlier and reach Egypt, where the fragment appeared.

Papyrus P45 points the same way: a 3rd-century codex that preserves the four gospels and Acts together, with leaves in the Chester Beatty in Dublin and in the National Library of Austria.

Christian authors of the 2nd century also don't fit that idea. At the end of that century, Irenaeus of Lyon names the four gospels one by one. According to him, Matthew made his account known while Peter and Paul were preaching in Rome, before dying under Nero, recalls Eusebius quoting Origen.

Add that Mark wrote Peter's preaching, that Luke did the same with Paul's, and that John published his in Ephesus. As a young man, Irenaeus listened to Polycarp, who had been a disciple of the apostle John.

Around the middle of the 2nd century, Justin Martyr calls them "memoirs of the apostles" and recounts that every Sunday they were read alongside the prophets. At the beginning of that century, Papias—Eusebius places him in the time of Trajan—already speaks of Mark and Peter's preaching.

How to recognize the next similar phrase

Before accepting or repeating such a phrase, ask what is being dated: the book, the copy, the canon list, or a council's decision? The date of a copy is not the date of the original.

The text itself says something that fits those dates. Luke writes that the account came "just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us" (Luke 1:2, ESV). He does not speak of an account received centuries later: he speaks of witnesses consulted.

John closes his with the same logic: "but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name" (John 20:31, ESV).

The next time someone drops the phrase, you don't need to argue from hearsay. Between Jesus and his gospels, decades passed, not centuries. Share this with whoever repeated it to you and ask them what they would think if the accounts are closer to the facts than they supposed.