The Gospel Dates To 30 A.D.
We’re back to my favorite apologetics subject: Ancient History! Many New Testament scholars today will differ in their positions on the dates the four gospels were written. This article will not weigh in on that discussion. This article is written to show that the gospel itself dates back to within 6 months of the crucifixion! I hope that peaks your interest. Let’s dive right into the data.
We will hardly be using the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, as we will be dealing with critical scholarship. In fact, we will only be using data that even the most skeptical New Testament scholars will accept! And what they do accept almost universally is the apostle Paul. The data we have for Paul is so impressive that you would be hard pressed to find a scholar with a terminal degree in the field who won’t accept the works of his we will be using; namely, 1 Corinthians, and Galatians. To track the gospel back to 30 A.D., we are going to follow Paul’s conversion timeline.
Paul tells the church at Corinth in 1 Corinthians 15, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.” These three verses (3,4, & 5) have been identified by New Testament scholars, who are well versed in Koine Greek, as a creed. A concise tradition that has a cadence to it. This creed is believed by scholars to have predated Paul, which seems to be affirmed by Paul himself when he says that he delivered to them, “What [he] also received.” This creed carries essential elements of the gospel, namely, that Christ died for our sins and rose from the grave. New Testament scholars have been finding these creedal statements and traditions like this one throughout the epistles. This was an easy way to spread the gospel quickly and in such a way that could be easily memorized before the New Testament documents were written, copied, and distributed. But where did Paul receive this from?
Paul first visited Corinth in the year 51 A.D. This is perhaps the most easily identifiable date in the New Testament, because Acts 18 records Paul arriving in Corinth during the leadership of Lucius Junius Gallio, son of Seneca the rhetorician, and brother of Seneca the philosopher. We know from an inscription that Gallio was proconsul of the region from 51-52 A.D., and these Roman officials only served for one year. So, if Paul arrived in Corinth during his governance, then it is obvious what year he arrived (scholars believe that the event in Acts 18 occurred somewhere between July and October of 51 A.D.). If Paul received this creed before he arrived at Corinth, then this creed, so far, dates no later than 51 A.D.; only 21 years from the cross! Now, 21 years from an event
is not even close to being an issue when studying ancient history. The closest extant sources we have for Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.), for example, are more than 400 years after his death! The two best sources for Alexander are Arian (c. 87 - after c. 145 A.D.) and Plutarch (c. 45-c.120 A.D.). But we can get closer still to the event of the crucifixion. Let’s get back to Paul.
Before we get into Paul’s reception of the aforementioned creed, let’s get one point settled. When did Paul’s Damascus road experience take place? Another way to ask this, as Gary Habermas has said, is how soon after Acts 1 is Acts 9? The most common dates given by scholars are 2 to 3 years after the cross. That’s 32 to 33 A.D. Remember this, as it will be important.
Paul records himself going to Jerusalem to make sure the gospel he was preaching was the same one the other apostles were preaching. In Galatians 1, Paul says that after his Damascus experience, he did not, “go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before [him], but right away [he] departed to Arabia, and then returned to Damascus.” Then he goes on to say, “Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and get information from him.” Now the Greek word translated as, “get information from,” (historesai) denotes investigation of a certain topic. From reading the first chapter of Galatians, there can be no mistaking that the gospel was that topic. James, the brother of Jesus, was also there as Paul says in the rest of chapter 1, and as the very well-respected Cambridge New Testament scholar C. H. Dodd said regarding this passage, “Paul spent fifteen days with Peter and James, and it’s safe to say that they did more than talk about the weather.”
Let’s see where we are at thus far:
30 A.D. - Jesus dies on the cross
32-33 A.D. - Paul converts
Three years later (35-36 A.D.) - Paul goes and discusses the gospel with Peter and James.
We are within 5 or 6 years of the crucifixion (depending on whether you take 32 or 33 A.D. for Paul’s conversion)! We are not yet done, but there is nothing like this in ancient history! Remember how far removed our sources for Alexander the Great are! But let’s continue.
By the way, Paul checks the gospel out more than once. In Galatians 2, he says, “Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me... in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain.” This is 14 years after the first visit in the previous chapter. And after all that time, the gospel he had first
discussed with Peter and James 5 or 6 years after the crucifixion had remained perfectly intact. As Paul goes on to say in chapter 2, “But from those who were influential (whatever they were makes no difference to me; God shows no favoritism between people)—those influential leaders added nothing to my message. On the contrary, when they saw that I was entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised just as Peter was entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised...and when James, Cephas, and John, who had a reputation as pillars, recognized the grace that had been given to me, they gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we would go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. Some today would call Paul “OCD,” but he’s simply verifying that the massage stayed the same and that no one was preaching anything contrary to what they had originally received. Scholars love Paul for this reason; he is very meticulous about investigating the truth.
Now, if Paul was persecuting the Church as recorded in Acts and 1 Corinthians 15, then the gospel was already circulating throughout the region before his conversion. This creed we’ve been talking about from 1 Corinthians 15 had to be put into a form and cadence before Paul received it, as it takes a while to put information into this creedal form, as Greek scholars have noted. It would be similar to a songwriter who has words, but hasn’t put them to musical form yet.
Critical scholars have dated this creed to within a couple of years of the crucifixion, and some even to the later part of the same year! To end this article, here are just a few quotes from skeptical scholars on the subject:
Gerd Ludemann maintains that "the elements in the tradition are to be dated to the first two years after the crucifixion of Jesus. . . . not later than three years. . . . the formation of the appearance traditions mentioned in I Cor.15.3-8 falls into the time between 30 and 33 CE. . .”
Michael Goulder thinks that it "goes back at least to what Paul was taught when he was converted, a couple of years after the crucifixion."
Thomas Sheehan agrees that this tradition "probably goes back to at least 32-34 C.E., that is, to within two to four years of the crucifixion.”
Sources and Recommended Resources:
Articles:
Experiences of the Risen Jesus by Gary Habermas
Resurrection Research from 1975 to the Present by Gary Habermas
Video:
The Resurrection Evidence that Changed Current Scholarship by Biola University Gary Habermas