Here is a brief post to draw together treatments I’ve written on the subject of when the four canonical Gospels were composed.
Determining the dates of Luke and Acts is a key first step in determining the dates of the others, so it is treated first.
I also treat these in my book The Bible Is a Catholic Book.
Posts in this series:
- When were Acts and the Gospel of Luke written?
- When was the Gospel of Mark written?
- When was the Gospel of Matthew written? (part 1)
- When was the Gospel of Matthew written? (part 2)
- When was the Gospel of Matthew written? (part 3)
- When was the Gospel of Matthew written? (part 4)
- When was the Gospel of John written?
Related to the question of when the Gospels were composed is the order in which they were written–especially the order of Matthew, Mark, and Luke (i.e., the “Synoptic Gospels”). This is known as the Synoptic Problem.
I have written about the Synoptic Problem rather extensively here.
Some additional posts related to the dating of the Gospels and other New Testament books include:
- Does St. Paul give clues about when the Gospels were written?
- How long did the Gospels take to spread?
- Why are the Gospels called “Gospels”?
Good article.
Another ref. you might consider, is the work of Dead Sea Scrolls scholar Fr. Jean Carmignac, in his book “The Birth of the Synoptics”. This book also looks at early dating, with Matthew being the earliest, with strong word structures found in semetic languages.
Interestingly enough, in the TV series “The Chosen”, Matthew is portrayed as carrying around his notebook witting things down, as one would expect of a ex-tax collector, probably using the ‘shorthand’ scribes and students of the time, for keeping speeches and lecture notes.