Dating of the Gospels

[Guest]

One thing I have observed, is that the early church fathers were against accepting known psuedepigraphic works (letters, epistles, or writings) as authoritative, so they wouldn't be likely to canonize these type of works. For instance, Tertullian actually removed the author of The Acts of Paul and Thecla from his position as a presbyter for trying to pass of his work under Paul's name. Even though this author could have had the best of intentions, and sound teaching, Tertullian brought correction to him for "augmenting Paul's fame from his own store" (Tertullian 'on bapstism 17). Other examples could be made, but the point I am making is that the early church from the start were not inclined to accept psuedepigraphic material. This may not be conclusive for the Petrine authorship position, but it is food for thought.

[Guest]

Evangelion, the website you listed only quotes liberal scholars and better arguments (I feel) are given by more conservative scholars. Many of those dates look way off to me (I agree with 10 of the 27). The arguments for a later dating seem like extreme guesswork but the earlier dates simply make more sense. If you think I'm biased against liberal scholars let me explain why I find them less reliable.

You will find a listing of conservative and liberal scholars opinions as to when the various New Testament books were penned on my site at: http://www.errantskeptics.org/Dating_the_NT.htm

[Guest]

Gary, you have a very nice website there. It's easy to navigate and uncluttered. Keep up the good work.

[Guest]

Interestingly manuscript / linguistic evidence further supports the primacy of Matthews Gospel which is in agreement with the majority of the early church fathers. Matthew is the largest gospel written by a tax collector who would possibly have been trained in "shorthand" developed by the Romans in 63 BC and used widely by its senior tax collecting employee's around the empire. Another good reason for choosing a tax collector!!!
http://www.walsallcommunitychurch.org/greveson.htm see this old article (I am no longer in this church)

Dr John A. T. Robinson, a distinguished critic, who in his book "Redating the New Testament" concluded that the gospels were written by the apostles themselves or contemporaries that worked with them and that a reasonable date for Matthews gospel should be placed as early as 40 AD.

" Shorthand was in widespread use before Matthew was born. In 63 BC Marcus Tallius Tiro, friend of Cicero invented a short hand system which then taught throughout the empire."