Chronology of the New Testament

[civic]

from Blue Letter Bible

Event	Reference	Year (AD)
Descent of the Holy Spirit	Acts 2:1-13	30
Setting Up of the Church	Acts 2:40-47	30
First Persecutions (Illustration)	Acts 4:1-22; 5:21-42; 7:1-60	35
Philip at Samaria	Acts 8:4-13	35
Conversion of Saul (Illustration)	Acts 9:1-9	36
First Gentile Converted	Acts 10:1-48	40
Founding of Church at Antioch	Acts 11:19-30	43
Writing of Matthew's Gospel	Matthew	43
James Writes his Epistle1	James	45
Paul's Call	Acts 13:1-3	47
His First Missionary Journey Begun (Map)	Acts 13:4-14:28	48
Council at Jerusalem	Acts 15:6-35	50
Second Missionary Journey Begun (Map)	Acts 15:39-18:22	51
Writing of I Thessalonians	I Thessalonians	52
Writing of II Thessalonians	II Thessalonians	53
Third Missionary Journey Begun (Map)	Acts 18:23-21:17	54
Writing of I Corinthians	I Corinthians	57
Writing of Galatians	Galatians	57
Writing of II Corinthians	II Corinthians	58
Writing of Romans	Romans	58
Writing of Luke's Gospel	Luke	59
Paul's Arrest at Jerusalem	Acts 21:26-22:29	58
Paul at Caesarea	Acts 23:23-26:32	59
Paul Starts for Rome	Acts 27:1-2	60
Paul Reaches Rome	Acts 28:11-16a	61
Paul's Imprisonment at Rome	Acts 28:16-31	62
Paul Writes Ephesians	Ephesians	62
Paul Writes Philippians	Philippians	62
Paul Writes Colossians	Colossians	62
Paul Writes Philemon	Philemon	62
James Killed by Herod1	Acts 12:1-25	62
I Peter Written	I Peter	63
Acts Written	Acts	63
Paul is Acquitted	-	63
Paul Visits Various Places	-	63
Paul Writes Hebrews	Hebrews	63
Paul Writes I Timothy	I Timothy	63
Paul Writes Titus	Titus	63
Writing of Mark's Gospel	Mark	64
II Peter Written	II Peter	65
Paul's Second Imprisonment at Rome	-	65
II Timothy Written	II Timothy	66
Martyrdom of Paul	-	66
Destruction of Jerusalem	-	71
Jude's Epistle Written	Jude	75
Writing of John's Gospel	John	85
Writing of John's Three Epistles	I John; II John; III John	90
John's Visions at Patmos	Revelation 1:9	96
Revelation Written	Revelation	97
Death of John	-	100

 

[civic]

This would also disprove the reformed teaching of preterism to be false.

95-96 CE the dating of the book of Revelation

Almost all New Testament scholars now take the view that Revelation was written during the reign of Domitian, sometime around 95-96 CE.

 

[EclipseEventSigns]

Interesting chart. But there's some factual errors in there. It has the destruction of Jerusalem listed in 71 AD. It was 70 AD. Also Paul's conversion was a lot earlier than 47 AD. That's 16 years after the ascension of Messiah Jesus. And there is no space given for Paul's training and time spent at Mount Sinai.

 

[civic]

Interesting chart. But there's some factual errors in there. It has the destruction of Jerusalem listed in 71 AD. It was 70 AD. Also Paul's conversion was a lot earlier than 47 AD. That's 16 years after the ascension of Messiah Jesus. And there is no space given for Paul's training and time spent at Mount Sinai.

Do you have a similar chart that you have made that can be shared here ? Thanks !

 

[civic]

Do you like this timeline from Christianity Today ? @EclipseEventSigns

The Apostle Paul’s Birth & Education​

c. A.D. 6 Born a Roman citizen to Jewish parents in Tarsus (in modern eastern Turkey)


c. 20–30 Studies Torah in Jerusalem with Gamaliel; becomes a Pharisee


c. 30–33 Persecutes followers of Jesus of Nazareth in Jerusalem and Judea

Conversion​

c. 33–36 Converted on the way to Damascus; spends three years in Arabia; returns to Damascus to preach Jesus as Messiah


c. 36 Flees Damascus because of persecution; visits Jerusalem and meets with the apostles


36–44 Preaches in Tarsus and surrounding region


44–46 Invited by Barnabas to teach in Antioch


46 With Barnabas visits Jerusalem to bring a famine relief offering

Mission Trips​

47–48 First missionary journey with Barnabas, to Cyprus and Galatia


49 At the Council of Jerusalem, Paul argues successfully that Gentile Christians need not follow Jewish law; returns to Antioch; confronts Peter over question of Jewish law


49–52 Second missionary journey with Silas, through Asia Minor and Greece; settles in Corinth; writes letters to Thessalonians


52 Visits Jerusalem and Antioch briefly; begins third missionary journey


52–55 Stays in Ephesus; writes the letters to Galatians and Corinthians


55–57 Travels through Greece and possibly Illyricum (modern Yugoslavia); writes letter to Romans

Paul’s Arrest & Death​

57–59 Returns to Jerusalem and arrested; imprisoned at Caesarea


59–60 Appears before Festus and appeals to Caesar; voyage to Rome


60–62 Under house arrest at Rome; writes letters to Philippians, Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon


62–64 Released; journeys to Spain?; writes letters to Timothy and Titus


64 Returns to Rome; martyred

 

[EclipseEventSigns]

Do you have a similar chart that you have made that can be shared here ? Thanks !

I don't. That chart gives absolute year dates. I don't think that is possible for all those things.
Regarding when John wrote his letters and the Revelation, I know there are several Christian sources from early centuries saying they were written in Domitian's reign. But we have to consider these statements were centuries after the fact. Lots of errors had crept in by that time. Afterall they already believed (wrongly) that the crucifixion happened on a Friday because they had lost their connection and knowledge of Jewish religious laws and customs.

The fact is that none of the New Testament authors mention the destruction of the temple or of Jerusalem as happening in the past. That is the best evidence that most was written BEFORE 70 AD. A lot of modern scholars give dates of the Gospels after 70 AD because of their assumption that when Jesus talked about armies around Jerusalem He was in fact predicting the 70 AD siege and destruction by the Romans. In their minds no one can predict the future so that writing must have been after the fact. And then they say that Paul's letters were also written after because no where does he mention any of the Gospel material in his letters.

Two issues. First, Jesus was not talking about the 70 AD Roman siege - and I know there's a lot of people on this thread that will disagree. That's fine. There's another thread to argue that. And second, true scholarship does believe that Messiah Jesus is God and therefore can know the future. So there is no limitation of the 70 AD date.

What there is evidence of is that by at least 78 AD, there were ALL 4 Gospels in existence (in Aramaic, btw). And there were already collections of the various letters by Paul and Peter being copied and shared among the churches throughout. All of these were already considered accepted Scripture. However, 5 books were not accepted as Scripture until a later date: II Peter, II, III John, Jude and Revelation. So these 5 were written AFTER the collation of New Testament writings had begun to be copied and carried to distant countries.

For example, the missionary journeys of Thomas took him through Parthia, into India and as far as China. He carried with him the New Testament writings that had been completed up to the point he began his journey. He was martyred in India.

 

[EclipseEventSigns]

In addition, I was reminded of something that I researched in the past but forgot about. A HUGE time marker that hardly anybody is aware of. I don't know why it's not better known by scholars. This is the fact that a massive earthquake occurred between 61-64 AD which destroyed the cities of Colossae, Laodicea and Hieropolis. They were eventually rebuilt but that took years.

Therefore, if there is no direct reference to the destruction of Jerusalem under the Romans in 70 AD, then the Gospels and the epistles must have been written before. Since Colossae was in ruins for basically the majority of the decade of 60 AD, then Paul's multiple references to that city must have been before 60 AD. This places the majority of the New Testament writings very early and directly contradicts "expert" scholars and their late dates.

This also provides a plausible reason why those 5 books: II Peter, II, III John, Jude and Revelation were not part of the early canon of that time. Laodicea was rebuilt but historical records indicated they did not accept monetary aid from Rome unlike the other cities. The population was very well off and decided to rebuild using their own funds. Their letter in Revelation references their riches.

So if the other 22 documents were already being collected and copied well before 60 AD then it makes total sense why those other 5 documents having been written sometime later, would not have been accepted as Scripture until a later period. And then immediately included in the later Greek translation of the material.