how long after jesus died was the new testament first written down?

Answer 1

Good question.

Due to the fragile nature of the material on which the originals of the New Testament were written, none of them survive today. So the best we can do is estimate from the fragments we do have and from other sources. For instance, it would be impossible to quote Shakespeare before his plays were written. So if you have someone in1755 quoting "To be or not to be" you would have to conclude that Hamlet was written before 1755. (And it was - around 1600). Make sense?

Start by looking at the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. You will notice that Mark is shortest (16 chapters). If you compare it with Matthew and Luke, you will see that 87% of Luke is taken directly from Mark, and 92% of Matthew comes from Mark. Matthew and Luke share one story not included in Mark, and the rest of their material is unique to their own book. Every scholar I have ever read agree that Matthew and Luke had a copy of Mark in their hand when they wrote - or that all three had a now unknown document (often refered to as "Q") that they took all the common material from. So either Mark - or the "Q" document - was the first of the gospels written.

In Paul's writing, in the year 57AD, Paul quotes from the gospel of Luke. (Remember the Hamlet scenerio?) So Luke had to have existed by 57AD for Paul to quote it. And Mark had to have predated that for Luke (and Matthew) to have copied it in their writings. So that gives us reasonable evidence to place at least 2 of the gospels within 27 years of the resurrections of Jesus in 30AD. And for them to be well enough know to be quoted, they were probably earlier than that.

Along comes Clements of Rome, a second generation Christian and church letter who wrote in series of letter to the early church. In one of his letters in 97AD he quotes from Luke and Acts, as well as the letters of Paul. And in 98AD he quotes from the book of Hebrew and Matthew. (Remember Hamlet?)

Manuscripts: Most New Testament manuscripts date from around 300AD forward only because that was when papyrus, which last about 50 years if you are lucky, was replaced with vellum, which has a much much longer lifetime. So the number of New Testament Manuscripts - or any other books for that matter - before 300AD are very limited and usually in fragments.

But some of those fragments do survive. Some of the best known New Testament fragments:
Part of the Gospel of John chapter 8 that has been dated to around 115AD (As John was written around 95-100AD, that is getting real close to the original)
Several pages of the Gospell of Matthew (chapter 25-28) that date from around 125AD
A copy of the writings of Paul in fragments from which 808 of 897 verses of his writtings can be reconstructed. Dated aroun 125-150AD (Paul wrote between 50-67AD)
A copy of Matthew in fragments for which about 70% of the book can be reconstructed from between 100-150AD
A copy of John in fragments - about 80% can be reconstructed from around 150AD
Earliest complete New Testament (contains the same 27 books in the New Testament today) dates from 175-200AD - in fragments
Shall I continue?

From the surviving papyrus manuscripts of the New Testament, quotes from early church father, inscriptures, and surviving prayer books that quote scripture, it is possible to reconstruct all but 11 verses of the 29 books of the New Testament from material in existance before 300 AD. This is before the Council of Nicene when meet began in 325 AD to official formalize the books of the New Testament. (They are the people who the DiVinci Code and others currently claim changed the New Testament. So we are fortunate to have all but 11 verses of the books confirmed from before they meet.)

There are over 5300 known early manuscripts of the New Testament. Compare this to Julius Caesar's autobiography of which there are 9 copies with the earliest coming from 1000 years after it was written. Plato - 7 copies earliest 600 years after written. Homer's Illiad - 600 copies, earliest 1200 years after written. The New Testament is the best document ancient book in existence.

Comparing those 5300 manuscripts, there are about 40 lines that have variations within the manuscripts. (That's about 0.8%) Of those, the majority have ONE of the 5300 manuscripts where a word or spelling is different. As these are all hand written manuscripts, it is not unreasonable to assume that if you made 5300 copies of a book, you might miswrite one word in one of the 5300 copies. Try it some time...

So there is reasonable evidence to show that the New Testament was completed during the lifetime of the people who actually witnessed the events. The first gospels appeared as early as 25 years after the time of Christ's resurrection. The book of Acts before 97AD The letters of Paul between 50-67AD. The other epistles, again, within the life time of the original disciples. And ample evidence to show that the text from which New Testament's are translated today is an accurate and reliable copy of the original material.

Answer 2

about 70 years is the most common answer i've read from historians and archeolgists ... some dates vary slightly (60? - 80?)

pauls letters were written BEFORE the gospels however. interesting huh. thats why paul never quotes jesus or mentions details about jesus' life (virgin birth, his hometown, etc)
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EDIT: ATTENTION: i dont know where DEWCOONS got his info but it NOT EVEN CLOSE. he obviously hangs out at christian websites, where "facts" vary depending on your "relationship with jesus" and YES, pauls letter were written before the gospels were... and as far as the date for the gospels ..even the encyclopedia says "around 70 ad.
Even wikipedia says:

"...the general scholarly consensus in 1996:
Mark: c. 68–73
Matthew: c. 70–100 as the majority view; the minority of conservative scholars argue for a pre-70 date, particularly those that do not accept Mark as the first gospel written.
Luke: c. 80–100, with most arguing for somewhere around 85
John: c. 90–110. Brown does not give a consensus view for John, but these are dates as propounded by C K Barrett, among others. The majority view is that it was written in stages, so there was no one date of composition. "

Answer 3

Well the writings we call the NT were written reasonably soon fter his death. The main writers were either disciples or followers or paul who was certainly an adult contempory. Lets ay within 50 years.
However there are loads of writings of that same period that were not included. The NT was not officially collated until around 400 years afterwards and the Church at the time (pre catholic and of a structure like that of the Orthodox church) decided what to include. Calvin was pretty upset that James was included and would have had it deleted if he had his way.

Answer 4

The best guess from History is about 60 years...their are accounts of journals being kept but nothing has been verified...

The Council Of Nicea - held by Emporer Constantine after his conversion to Christianity decided the order and content of the modern bible...there was 32 gospels, reduced down the four we know now then...This was in 321 AD...

Answer 5

The book of Mark is the earliest written from the NT and it was written about 70AD. The other books vary.

Answer 6

5 or 6 books were circulating after his death. Who knows when the rest were written but the bible was compiled into one big book, 300-1800 years after Jesus's death depending on which version you believe and changes were continueing to be made after they were compiled

I said 5 or 6 were circulating from the apostles who travled with him. I got my information from the Discovery channel. You try to validate your infromation by repeating it. Sad

Answer 7

Marcion (b. 85) Had gather most of the New Testament books together and called them scripture

So to answer your question immediately after His death writing were already started.

(Tiger--- has her facts and dates way off)

Answer 8

the earliers book is from 50 years after. most are from 200 years after. makes u wonder about how accurate they are huh

Answer 9

40 years or more. and most of it was written by one guy.

Answer 10

I was not alive when Jesus died.