Paul’s Letters
Paul wrote 13 early letters to churches and individuals, forming a significant portion of the New Testament. Paul’s letters, dated by scholars between the mid-40s and the mid-60s (12 to 33 years after Christ), constitute the earliest witnesses to Jesus’ life and teaching.
Non-Christian historian, Will Durant, wrote of the historical importance of Paul’s letters, “The Christian evidence for Christ begins with the letters ascribed to Saint Paul. … No one has questioned the existence of Paul, or his repeated meetings with Peter, James, and John; and Paul enviously admits that these men had known Christ in the flesh.”5
Most scholars date Paul’s writings from AD 48-67. That’s consistent with Biblical archaeologist William Albright’s research, who concluded that all the New Testament books were written while most of the apostles were still alive. He wrote,
We can already say emphatically that there is no longer any solid basis for dating any book after about 80 A.D., two full generations before the date given by the more radical New Testament critics of today.”6
Albright dates the writing of the entire New Testament at “very probably sometime between about 50 A.D. and 75 A.D.”7
In Redating the New Testament critical scholar, John A. T. Robinson of Cambridge concludes that most of the New Testament books were written between AD 40 and AD 65 and are the eyewitness accounts of the apostles. His scholarly work that led to his conclusions of early dating for the New Testament is impeccable.
Robinson puts its writing as early as seven years after Christ lived8 when any historical errors pertaining to Jesus’ teaching, death, and resurrection would have been immediately exposed by both eyewitnesses and the enemies of Christianity. For example, Peter could say of a forgery in his name, “That’s not my Gospel, I didn’t write that.” And Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John could respond to questions or challenges aimed at their accounts of Jesus.
Early dating of the New Testament is also confirmed by early Christian creeds and hymns citing various passages, including 1 Corinthians 15: 3-5 about Jesus’ resurrection within a few years after its occurrence. As mentioned, there are also thousands of early extrabiblical documents, as well as writings from non-Christian historians that refer to accounts found in the New Testament.
Together with the early manuscript copies of the Gospels, and the early dating of Paul’s letters, there is overwhelming evidence that the entire New Testament was written while eyewitnesses to Jesus would still have been living.
Click here to read page 5 of 10 about “Are the Gospel Accounts of Jesus True?”