The Dating of the New Testament
We can be confident the New Testament was written before AD 70 for a number of reasons. To start with, during his earthly ministry Jesus prophesied that Jerusalem and the temple would be destroyed (Matt. 24:2–35, Luke 21:5–33, Mark 13:1–31). Yet Jerusalem and the temple—which historians agree were destroyed in AD 70—were still intact and functioning when the New Testament was written (Matt. 24:2; Luke 21:5, 20; Acts 21:26; 2 Thess. 2:4; Rev. 11:1–2).
It is inconceivable that the New Testament writers would have neglected to mention the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple had it already happened. The city of Jerusalem and the temple were of utmost importance to Jews. Their national, economic, and religious lives—in fact, their very identity as God’s chosen people—revolved around the city of Jerusalem and the temple. Therefore, had they already been destroyed, the New Testament writers surely would have mentioned it. In I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist, Norman Geisler and Frank Turek put it like this:
“Imagine this. You’re a devout Jew in the first century. The center of your national, economic, and religious life is Jerusalem, and especially the temple. It has been that way in your nation, your family, and almost every Jew’s family for a thousand years—ever since Solomon built the first temple…For your entire life, you have been attending services and brought sacrifices there to atone for the sins you’ve committed against God. Why? Because you and your countrymen consider this temple the earthly dwelling place of the God of the universe, the maker of heaven and earth, the very Deity whose name is so holy you dare not utter it. As a young man, you begin following a Jew named Jesus who claims to be the long-awaited Messiah predicted in your Scriptures. He performs miracles, teaches profound truths, and scolds and befuddles the priests in charge of the temple. Incredibly, he predicts his own death and resurrection. He also predicts that the temple itself will be destroyed before this generation passes away (Mark 13:2, 30)…Forty years later, the temple is destroyed just as Jesus had predicted, along with the entire city and thousands of your countrymen. Question: If you and your fellow followers write accounts of Jesus after the temple and city were destroyed in AD 70, aren’t you going to at least mention that unprecedented national, human, economic, and religious tragedy somewhere in your writings, especially since this risen Jesus had predicted it? Of course! Well, here’s the problem for those who say the New Testament was written after 70—there’s absolutely no mention of the fulfillment of this predicted tragedy anywhere in the New Testament documents.”[1]
Well said! It is simply inconceivable that the New Testament writers/apostles—who were all devout Jews (with the possible exception of Luke)—would have neglected to mention such a monumental, life-changing event as the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, had it already happened.
In The Apocalypse Code, Hank Hanegraaff argues that the New Testament writers neglecting to mention the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple—had it already happened—would be like a modern-day historian writing a book about the history of New York City and failing to mention the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. If you read such a book, you would no doubt conclude it was written before 9/11. It’s the same with the New Testament regarding the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. Had these events happened, the New Testament writers would not have neglected to mention it.
Another reason we can be sure the New Testament was written before AD 70 is that Jesus’s prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple was one of his most important prophecies, yet there is not a single word uttered about the fulfillment anywhere in the New Testament. Had it already happened, the New Testament writers would certainly have touted the fulfillment as proof of Jesus’s messianic claims! Think about how often Jesus and the apostles said things like, “This was done to fulfill what was written in Isaiah” (Matt. 12:17) or “This happened to fulfill what was said by the [Old Testament] prophet” (Matt. 1:22). In the book of Matthew alone, such statements are made forty-seven times. Yet not one word is mentioned anywhere in the New Testament about the fulfillment of one of Jesus’s most significant prophecies ever made, the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. Why? Because it had not happened yet.
For information specifically about the book of Revelation, see my article The Dating of Revelation. Or, for an in-depth look at this issue, get my book The End Is Here: How the New Testament’s Prophecies Were Fulfilled, available Summer 2024.
By Alex Polyak, Director of The Bible Fulfilled, 9/8/24
[1] Norman Geisler and Frank Turek, I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2004), 237–238.
