who wrote the gospels and when were they written?

Question

I have heard the were written by communities, rather than individuals, and over 100 years after christ was supposed to have died. also is there any firm evidence that jesus really did live and annoy the romans, from the romans perspective? that confirm his miricles rather than the fact he was some sort of teacher or spiritual leader.

Answer 1

Papius was a student of John (writer of the 4th Gospel) He and other church fathers wrote to each other as the led different churches and quote parts from all the Bible including Revelation,not long after the turn of the 2nd century.Papias even says Matthew was the only one to write his Gospel in Hebrew,the rest wrote in Greek.Papias was John's student before 90 A.D.(John died around 90 A.D.) so they had to be written between 33 A.D and say 80 A.D. for them to have so much familiarity with them.Matthew wrote his to the Jewish nation in Hebrew,Mark wrote his in Greek to the Roman world and his version is what he learned from Peter.Mark was around 12 when all this took place.He inserts himself in the end as the young man who fled away when they pulled his toga off as during the arrest of Jesus.Luke who was a gentile who converted to Judaism and then Christianity ,was a physician and fast friend of the Apostle Paul.He wrote his as an investigative piece .One can see from the first 4 chapters ,it was an in depth interview with Mary herself.It was written no later than 65 A.D. John ,they say held off writing until late in life.He was not well versed in Greek (that was the world wide language of the day even at the time of the Romans).Many of his words are mono syllabic such as 'In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God...' only" beginning "was 2 syllable.
The Apostles would tell their Gospels,and it got to the point there were so many churches they wrote them down to be copied and passed around.
What the liberal "theologians " are hoping for is that most people won't bother to investigate the facts and buy their crappy books.All the Gospels and New Testament were written before the end of the 1rst century.The Book of Hebrews talks about the Jewish Temple as still being there. It was destroyed in 70 A.D. therefore we know it was written before that date.
The heathen Roman ,Tacitus wrote a letter to Rome from Jerusalem and talks about "...one Chrestus (Christ) who's followers go about disturbing the peace..."
Other than that,I don't know of any eye witness testimony about Jesus and the Romans.

Answer 2

Matthew, a tax collector, wrote Matthew.
Mark, an apostle of Peter, wrote Mark. He's also known as John Mark.
Luke, Paul's physician, wrote Luke and Acts.
John son of Zebedee wrote John and Revelation.

The latest date for ANY of the books in the New Testament are those written by John. They were given a date of around 95 A.D. A new school of thought has started to reconsider those dates, though, because of the terminology used in John. He often speaks of things still existing which were destroyed in 70 A.D.

The dates given for the New Testament weren't just pulled out of the air. They've been carefully studied, and those are the dates that make sense, because many of the people mentioned as still living when the writers took the time to record events died before 70 A.D.

Is there proof that Jesus existed? Not really. Most of the extrabiblical accounts were written far after the fact. However, this is normal. Most people weren't written about right away, even kings and emperors.

Answer 3

Matthew, Mark Luke and John... It wasn't too long after the death of Christ they were written, however, John's gospel was written 100 years after. The Romans could have cared less about Jesus. They were Pagans. They were not annoyed by Jesus. It was the Pharisees, the leaders of the Jewish community that were annoyed. When you get into the miracles it becomes a matter of faith. Some believe and some don't.

Answer 4

They were written by individuals and were generally written between 40 and 90 AD. There are several letters that were written by Paul (Saul) of Tarsus and Luke was credited with the the Gospel of Luke and possibly Acts. Matthew and John were two of Jesus's disciples and have the books in their names and John gets the book that we seem to see the Revelations (books name) happening before our eyes in the evening news. James was Jesus's half brother and has a book in the New Testament also.

It is not what we can learn about the dates but it is what the Bible can teach us about God, Jesus, salvation, repentance and how we should live.

Look at what groups like Samaritans Purse and Compassion are doing for the children in the world, Mother Theresa's order for the lepers...etc.

God Bless your search for real truth!
Todd


"Now is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It won't last forever. We must take it or leave it." C.S. Lewis (An atheist that looked and found God and Jesus and wrote the book Mere Christianity.
Check it out.
http://www.lib.ru/LEWISCL/mere_engl.txt
http://www.cslewisclassics.com/books/mere_christianity.html)

Answer 5

The authorship of the Gospels is an interesting topic. Most agree that Mark was written by Peter's companion. That Luke and Acts was written by Paul's companion. John was apparently written by the apostle of that name. The author of Matthew seems less certain. Perhaps a follower of the apostle by that name, based upon some of Matthew's teaching, the Gospel of Mark, the Gospel of Luke and perhaps some lost writings.

Most accept that all of the Gospels were written before 100 AD.

Answer 6

darwinsf is correct.

The information on which committees wrote the 25 or so gospels, (the best that scholars know), is available for the effort of research.

Only four made it into the first Catholic bible and those are the four you are familiar with. They are supposed to be listed in the bible chronologically and are in the wrong order.

The gospels were reconstructed, so to speak, by a Roman scholar in the employ of Constantine 1 in the forth century. This scholar wrote down the various memories and folklore as remembered by itinerant jews/early christians living in Rome and the environs.

It probable that this decision by Constantine, to recreate these "sacred" documents and declare christinaity as the official religion of Rome, prevented a civil war.

People! Ya can't live with em and Ya can't live without em!

Answer 7

Nobody knows who wrote the gospels.For example,biblical scholars almost unanimously agree that the gospels attributed to Matthew,Mark,Luke and John were almost certainly NOT written by them.

Answer 8

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The words were given to them by inspiration of God.

Answer 9

the disciples thru Jesus within 30 to40 yrs of his death

Answer 10

Dadof4 has the best, detailed and complete answer to the question.