How many years?

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How many years after Christs death was the first New Testament book written and compiled? And for that matter the years for the old and new to be combined to make the Christian bible? If there is a significant amount of time (and even if there isn’t) how can a Protestant disregard tradition when it took word of mouth and hearing to put the written word together?
 
I’m not an expert in Early Christianity history, but it is commonly believed that the pauline epistles were composed around 45-55 A.D.
As for the Gospels:
  • Matthew: It is believed to have been written between 50 A.D. (conservative scholars) and 70-80 A.D. (liberal scholars)
  • Mark: it’s widely accepted that Mark was the first written Gospel, between 55 A.D. to 70 A.D.
  • Luke: written after Matthew, since it most probably used the same sources and Mark and Matthew (very likely used Matthew’s Gospel): between 55 A.D. to 90 A.D.
  • John: between 80 A.D. to 105 A.D.
I think the Canon was closed during the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D., but the books and epistles that would be part of it had been pretty much decided long before, at least from Ireaneus’ time (c. 180 A.D)
 
Papias (ca 60-130) was quoted by the church historian Eusebius as saying: “Matthew arranged in order the sayings [logia] in the Hebrew =Aramaic?] language, and each one interpreted/translated as he was able”.
Probably the Matthew Gospel as we have it today wasn’t written by Matthew himself, but it used material originally written by Matthew in Hebrew or Aramaic, and then the author of the Gospel of Matthew translated it into Greek. We don’t know exactly by who, some people believed it was a work of James the Just himself, but the Early Church Fathers are silent about it.
So I’d say, the Canon has been pretty much been decided at 180 A.D. the latest, and the New Testment as we have it today composed after 325 A.D…
 
The Canon of the Bible were set in

Council of Hippo AD 393
Council of Carthage AD 397
Council of Rome AD 382 where the list was officially accepted by Pope Damasus

The Council of Nicea was not dealing with the Canon but with the Arian Heresy
 
The Catholic Canon wasn’t actually closed until Trent. I could be wrong, but I read that somewhere recently.

The Old Testament was already compiled back then, they used a Greek translation of Jewish scripture called the Septuagint or LXX.
 
ConstantineTG said:
The Catholic Canon wasn’t actually closed until Trent. I could be wrong, but I read that somewhere recently.
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There may be some truth to that. The material used in the early centuries (papyrus, parchment, etc.) could hardly span a few centuries and many copies were made by hand to pass on to be recopied for later generations. Handwriting mistakes crept in and it wasn’t until the printing press came along when all the available copies were examined and consolidated into typeset.
 
Oh, here we go with Trent again.

The canon of scripture was closed at Trent. God seperated light from dark at Trent. God made a covenant with Isreal at Trent. Israel came out of exile at Trent. When the Heavenly Jerusalem comes down, it will land at Trent. 😛

Trent… Trent… Trent… That’s all I ever hear about is Trent. 😃

-Tim-
 
johnnyjones said:
How many years after Christs death was the first New Testament book written and compiled? And for that matter the years for the old and new to be combined to make the Christian bible? If there is a significant amount of time (and even if there isn’t) how can a Protestant disregard tradition when it took word of mouth and hearing to put the written word together?
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Do you mean the Gospels or Paul’s letters?
 
The exact dates for the writings of nearly all the books of the New Testament are unknown. However, Biblical scholars can make pretty good guesses… for example - Jerusalem was utterly destroyed in A.D. 70 (by the Romans), so when we hear predictions of its destruction in the Gospels (made by Jesus) you can begin to work out timings perhaps by noting how much detail the author of the Gospel goes into or how big a thing it seems to be at the time of writing (2 million Jews died so when it happened it was VERY big).

Hope this helps!
ClemtheCatholic
 
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