Gospels written too long after Jesus?

Was Jesus a myth or a true story?

Were the Gospels written too long after Jesus’ death and resurrection so that no one was able to be an eyewitness?

If more than a generation had passed since Jesus performed the miracles, then exaggerations and myths could develop.

But what we find is that less than forty years after Jesus a gospel and many public letters from the apostles to the churches had already been written.

This article compares this situation to a couple of modern day examples…

1. Were the gospel writers eyewitnesses to Jesus’ life?

Were the Gospels written too long after Jesus and therefore everyone had died who could have been eyewitnesses to Jesus Christ?

Some people have said that the time between Jesus′ death and resurrection and when the New Testament was written was just too long – it allowed exaggerations and false claims to come in.

This article aims to show that there were plenty of eyewitnesses around and still alive to highlight if anything was untrue or fake.
Therefore the conclusion has to be that the Gospels could not have been fabricated.

We can trust and know that the writers of the Gospels didn’t exaggerate and make things up about Jesus Christ.
Jesus was not a myth because the writers of the Gospels and letters to the churches were eyewitnesses.

Thousands of people had heard Jesus′ teaching and had seen the miracles.
If these things hadn’t been true, the whole of the Christian teaching would have gone down like a lead balloon.

See a timeline of when the New Testament letters and Gospels were written, looking at the evidence.

2. Donald Campbell’s legendary life – real or myth?

Donald Campbell’s story is a contemporary illustration of the gospel writers to Jesus, based on the same time scale between actual events and what people could remember:

Donald Campbell is known for breaking world speed records:

From 1955 he repeatedly broke new World Water-Speed records, first on Ullswater reaching a speed of 202 mph, until 1964 at Lake Dumbleyung, where he reached 276mph.

Then in 1964 at Lake Eyre, Australia, he set a new World Land Speed Record of 403 mph.
So in that same year, he held both the Water and Land Speed Records at the same time.

Then in 1967, he died when he went over 300 mph on Coniston water as his boat K7 ‘Bluebird’ bounced into the air and crashed.

Could Donald Campbell breaking these speed limits have been just a myth?

So, when writing this article, it has been 37 years since his death.

What would happen if someone said that Donald Campbell was just a myth, it never really happened!
No one would believe that Donald Campbell was a myth.
Many people would have seen him break the records, either on news reports or by actually being there.
They were eyewitnesses to what really happened.
Many people were still alive who had seen the real Donald Campbell.

So if some people had tried to add some fantastical, magical things to Donald Campbell’s life then the real eyewitnesses would have spoken out and people wouldn’t have believed the myths added to his life.

3. One gospel was written less than 37 years after Jesus′ death

One gospel and thirteen Christian letters were written less than 37 years after Jesus′ death.

These letters were probably written in 60 AD or earlier:

• The letter of James,
• Simon Peter′s first letter,
• the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans,
• the two letters to the Corinthians,
• the one to the Galatians,
• the two letters to the Thessalonians.

Thirty seven years after Jesus′ death and resurrection, in about 67 AD, which is the same amount of time from Donald Campbell’s record attempts to writing this article, the above letters had been around for about seven years.

Also, the following had recently been written and distributed to many different churches:

• Paul’s letter to Philemon about 64 AD,
• and to the Philippians about 64 AD,
• and to the Ephesians about 64 AD,
• also the letter to the Colossians about 64 AD.
• The gospel of Mark was written around A.D. 64 or 65.
• Peter’s second letter about 66 AD,
• and the letter from Jude about 66 AD.

This does not include the other letters which we don′t have any clues as to when they were written, eg letters to Timothy, etc, which were probably written at this time.

From this evidence, we conclude that there were too many people still alive, who had been eyewitnesses to Jesus performing miracles, for the gospel of Mark and the letters written to churches to be fabricated and exaggerated.

4. If these writings had been myths then Christianity would have died out

All of these had been written while people were still alive who had seen Jesus′ miracles and had heard His teachings.

If these letters, the Gospel, and the history of the early Church had been based on myths, then this new group, the Christians, would have fizzled out, because the people would have known it was a myth.

But because they were talking about a real person called Jesus, the crowds would have seen Him.
They were eyewitnesses to what really happened, even if they didn’t agree with Jesus, they couldn’t have denied what He had done.
Even the religious leaders couldn’t deny Jesus′ miracles, they tried to explain it as being the work of Satan.

But these writings are the truth, people knew that, and they were willing to die for that Truth.

5. Winston Churchill miraculously turned his Spam sandwich into a banquet and fed 5000 people!!!!

Another example of how difficult it would be to fabricate a story about a well-known person while their peers were still alive was Winston Churchill.
Fantastical stories about him just would not stick!

Imagine someone writing a book in 1970 about Winston Churchill’s time in the Second World War.
He was still well known in 1970, and there were a lot of witnesses who had seen and heard him back in the 1940s.
But if this book claimed that Winston Churchill had performed signs and miracles, it would have had no weight, no credibility and no one would have taken any notice of it.

6. How many people saw Jesus alive after His crucifixion?

There were many people who saw Jesus alive after he had died on the cross. According to the Apostle Paul:

Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas and then to the Twelve.
After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep *.
Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles and last of all he appeared to me ** also, as to one abnormally born.”

1 Corinthians 15:3-8 NIV (* = means dead. ** = the Apostle Paul)

More than 500 people!

7. Even Jesus′ enemies couldn’t deny His miracles.

His enemies never said; “That was a hoax!” “Agh! You just conned those people!”
No, they couldn’t deny what they had just seen, so they said:

It is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons.”

Matthew 9:34 NIV

Or on another occasion, when His enemies couldn’t deny the things that Jesus was doing they said:

By what authority are you doing these things?
And who gave you authority to do this?”

Matthew 21:23 NIV

Jesus replied:

I will ask you one question.
Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things.
John′s baptism, was it from heaven, or from men? Tell me!’
They discussed it among themselves and said, ‘If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men…’ (They feared the people, for everyone held that John really was a prophet.)
So they answered Jesus, ‘We don′t know.’
Jesus said, ‘Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.’”

Mark 11:27-33 NIV

What a good answer!

The authorities wanted the memory of Jesus to stop

The religious leaders, mainly the Pharisees ² and Sadducees were ready to stamp out any stories about Jesus because of jealousy and fear of reprisals from the Roman authorities.

They were aware that there was a rumour that Jesus was going to come back from the dead.
So they were determined to not let that happen – hence they wanted guards to be stationed at Jesus’ grave!

The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate.
‘Sir,’ they said, ‘we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’
So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day.
Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead.
This last deception will be worse than the first.’
‘Take a guard,’ Pilate answered. ‘Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.’
So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.”

Matthew 27:62-66 NIV

Okay naturally speaking there was no way that Jesus could come back to life.
If his followers were going to roll back the stone and say that he had risen from the dead then the guards would stop that!
But even if they had managed to get Jesus’ dead body, would they under persecution willingly give up their lives to say that Jesus had risen from the dead (when they knew they had fabricated it!)

But it didn’t happen that way, God had other ideas:

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.
There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.
His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow.
The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men…”

Matthew 28:14 NIV

The guards and religious leaders were powerless to stop this happening.
Some of them would carry on stubbornly refusing to accept this, while others believed that Jesus had risen from the dead.

So what has been written in the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament is reliable, and trustworthy, (as is the whole of the Bible). The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy saying:

…from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

2 Timothy 3:16-17 NIV

So the conclusion is that these things were written soon enough to be reliable evidence, because many people were still alive who had seen the real Jesus.

See a timeline of when the New Testament letters to the various churches and Gospels were written.
A detailed article covering: How reliable are other sources in history compared to the Gospels and New Testament?

References and credits – open in new tabs:

1. Photo credit: New York Public Library Digital Collections ↩

2. ‘Pharisees’ Britannica  ↩