When were the gospels written?

Most scholars date the four gospels to roughly AD 65-95: Mark first (around 65-70), Matthew and Luke in the 70s-80s, and John in the 90s. Some scholars argue for earlier dates, partly because none of the gospels describes the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in AD 70 as a past event - a strange omission if they were written afterward.

Either way, the key point is that this is well within living memory. People who had seen and heard Jesus were still alive, and hostile witnesses were still around to contradict any invention. By the standards of ancient history, this gap is remarkably small - our main biographies of Alexander the Great were written more than four centuries after he died, yet historians use them without hesitation.

Just as important, the gospels rest on material that is older than the documents themselves. Paul's letters, written in the AD 50s - within about 20-25 years of the crucifixion - already summarize the core message. And inside one of them Paul quotes a creed (1 Corinthians 15:3-7) that scholars across the spectrum date to within just a few years of the cross, naming living eyewitnesses. The oral and written traditions the gospel writers drew on reach back to the events themselves.

This matters because the most common objection - "the gospels were written decades later, so they're just legend" - assumes the long gap needed for legends to grow. But legends of this kind generally take generations to displace living memory, and here the timeline is far too short: the proclamation that Jesus died and rose was circulating within a few years, while eyewitnesses could still check it.

Dating the gospels honestly doesn't require pretending they were written the week after Easter. It requires noticing that even the latest mainstream dates put them close to the events, anchored to testimony that goes back earlier still.