Brief History of New Testament

[brycehecht]

Tomorrow and Saturday I will be attending a class on Sacred Scripture, particularly the New Testament. This is a class for the commissioned lay ministers for my diocese, that my parish priest has so kindly allowed me to participate in. He said that tomorrow’s session will focus on the historical aspect of the New Testament. Does anybody know of any good websites where I could find a brief history of the NT from a Catholic perspective? I want to be prepared before I go, so that I am able to formulate thoughts and questions ahead of time, that will aid myself in the discussion. Thanks!

 

[dronald]

This is a good question, because I’m not sure what the “Catholic perspective” is. I know that Matthew priority was believed in the early Church and continued for quite a while; but recently scholars have argued that Mark came first.

Now, secular scholars will say Mark was written around 70ad based on Jesus’s accurate prediction of the second temple being destroyed. Because (according to them) Luke and Matthew follow Mark, often seculars will claim that they were written around 72-75 placing the Acts at 75ish. John of course coming much later.

However, Evangelicals argue that because so many important events went ignored (including the destruction of the temple) The Acts had to be written before 70ad, putting Luke even earlier. Assuming Mark was written before Luke we can say Mark was written (along with Matthew) before 65ad. Of course we all argue that Jesus really did make the prediction and it wasn’t something added later.

I hope this helps, because I know you wanted a Catholic source; but I don’t think there’s an official defined belief on dates of writings. Basically it’s open for argument and you should look at the evidence and make an educated decision.