Dating the Bible

Some of the oldest surviving Hebrew Bible manuscripts, the Dead Sea Scrolls, date to . Some of these scrolls are presently stored at the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem. The oldest text of the entire Christian Bible, including the New Testament, is the Codex Sinaiticus dating from the 4th century CE, with its Old Testament a copy of a Greek translation known as the Septuagint. The oldest extant manuscripts of the vocalized Masoretic Text date to the 9th century CE. With the exception of a few biblical sections in the Nevi'im, virtually no Old Testament biblical text is contemporaneous with the events it describes.

Internal evidence within the texts of the 27-book New Testament canon suggests that most of these books were written in the 1st century CE. The first book written is thought to be either the Epistle to the Galatians (written around 48 CE) or 1 Thessalonians, written around 50 CE. The latest book written is thought to be the Second Peter, written around 110 CE. The final book in the ordering of the canon, the Book of Revelation, is generally accepted by traditional scholarship to have been written during the reign of Domitian (81–96) before the writing of 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus and the Epistles of John. Dating the composition of the texts relies primarily on internal evidence, including direct references to historical events. Textual criticism, as well as epigraphic analysis of biblical manuscripts, provides further evidence that scholars consider when judging the relative age of sections of the Bible.

Table I: Chronological overview

This table summarises the chronology of the main tables and serves as a guide to the historical periods mentioned. Much of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament may have been assembled in the 5th century BCE. The New Testament books were composed largely in the second half of the 1st century CE. The deuterocanonical books fall largely in between.

{| class="wikitable"

! Period

! Books

| Pre-monarchic 13th century–1000 BCE

Late 13th century: Song of the Sea
12th–10th: Psalm 29
Late 12th–late 11th: Song of Deborah (alternative datings to the monarchic period have been advanced)
11th-10th: Numbers 24
12th–8th: Song of Moses (not including the editorializing layer of Deuteronomy 32:44–32:55)

| Monarchic 1000–587 BCE

Late 8th–early 7th: Amos (initial composition of earliest layer, Amos 2:6–9:10); "First Isaiah" (Isaiah 1–39), Hosea, Micah (1–3).
7th: Nahum (based on its assumption of the fall of Thebes and call for the destruction of Nineveh), Zephaniah (in the reign of Josiah, ), Habakkuk (possibly shortly before the Battle of Carchemish, 605 BCE); first edition of the Deuteronomistic history (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings) in the reign of Josiah; Deuteronomy 5–26 in the reign of Josiah.
Late 7th–early 6th: early variation of the Priestly Blessing (from the oldest surviving Biblical text, the Ketef Hinnom scrolls)

| Exilic 586–539 BCE

Core of Obadiah around the fall of Jerusalem, 586 BCE
Completion of Deuteronomistic history (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings)
Deuteronomy expanded with addition of chapters 1–4 and 29–30 to serve as an introduction to the Deuteronomistic history
Jeremiah active in the last decade of the 7th century and first decades of the 6th
Ezekiel active in Babylon 592–571 BCE
"Second Isaiah" (author of Isaiah 40–55) active in Babylon around mid-century
Expansion and reshaping of Hosea, Amos, Micah and Zephaniah
Possible early Psalms collection (psalms "of David") ending with psalm 89

| Post-exilic (Persian) 538–332 BCE

Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers), with 250 BCE determined to be the last possible date for the final text based on manuscript evidence
Deuteronomy revised with expansions to chapters 19–25 and addition of chapter 27 and 31–34 to serve as conclusion to the Torah
"Third Isaiah" (Isaiah 56–66)
Later version (the Masoretic Hebrew version) of Jeremiah
Haggai (self-dated to the second year of the Persian king Darius 520 BCE)
Zechariah (chapters 1–8 contemporary with Haggai, chapters 9–14 from the 5th century)
Malachi (5th century BCE, contemporaneous or immediately prior to the missions of Nehemiah and Ezra)
Book of Joel (between 450 and 350 BCE)
Chronicles (between 350 and 300 BCE)
Origins of Ezra–Nehemiah (may have reached its final form as late as the Ptolemaic period, )

| Post-exilic (Hellenistic) 331–164 BCE

Job, Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, and Song of Songs (possibly written in the 4th or even 5th century, but seems to reflect contact with Greek culture)
Jonah (Persian or Hellenistic, no later than 2nd century BCE)
Most of the individual psalms making up the final third of Psalms
Tobit (between 225 and 175 BCE)
Book of Sirach (the first quarter of the 2nd century BCE, probably )
Daniel (between 168 and 164 BCE)

| Maccabean/Hasmonean 164–63 BCE

1 Maccabees (between 146 and 129 BCE)
Judith (between 150 and 100 BCE)
2 Maccabees (between 134 and 100 BCE)
3 Maccabees (between 100 BCE and 70 CE)
Additions to Daniel and Additions to Esther
Wisdom of Solomon ()

| Roman after 63 BCE

3 Maccabees (between 100 BCE and 70 CE)

| (125–175 CE)

| Acts

| , on the grounds that Luke–Acts uses Mark as a source, looks back on the destruction of Jerusalem, and does not show any awareness of the letters of Paul (which began circulating late in the century); if, however, it does show awareness of the letters of Paul and also of the works of Josephus, then a date early in the 2nd century CE is more likely.

| , , , , (250 CE)

| Romans

| . One of the indisputably genuine Pauline letters, written to the Romans as Paul was about to leave Asia Minor and Greece, and expressing his hopes to continue his work in Spain.

| (mid 2nd century to mid 3rd century CE)

| 1 Corinthians

| . One of the indisputably genuine Pauline letters. Paul expresses his intention to re-visit the church he founded in the city .

| (late 2nd century or 3rd century CE)

| 2 Corinthians

| . One of the indisputably genuine Pauline letters. Written by Paul in Macedonia after having left Ephesus.

| (late 2nd century or 3rd century CE)

| Galatians

| or 55 CE. One of the indisputably genuine Pauline letters. The dating of this letter depends on whether it was written to the northern or southern portion of Galatia (with the former representing the later date).

| (late 2nd century or 3rd century CE)

| Ephesians

| . The letter appears to have been written after Paul's death in Rome, by an author who uses his name.

| (late 2nd century or 3rd century CE)

| Philippians

| . A genuine Pauline letter, it mentions "Caesar's household," leading some scholars to believe that it is written from Rome, but some of the news in it could not have come from Rome. It seems rather to date from an earlier imprisonment, perhaps in Ephesus, from which Paul hopes to be released.

| (late 2nd century or 3rd century CE)

| Colossians

| or post-70 CE. Some scholars believe Colossians dates from late in Paul's career, around the time of his imprisonment in Rome. However, some of the language and theology point to a much later date, from an unknown author using Paul's name.

| (late 2nd century or 3rd century CE)

| 1 Thessalonians

| . One of the earliest of the genuine Pauline epistles.

| (late 2nd century or 3rd century CE)

| 2 Thessalonians

| or post-70 CE. If this is a genuine Pauline epistle it follows closely on 1 Thessalonians. But some of the language and theology point to a much later date, from an unknown author using Paul's name.

| (300 CE)

| 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Epistle to Titus

| . The two Timothy epistles and Titus reflect a much more developed Church organization than that reflected in the undisputed Pauline epistles.

| Codex Sinaiticus (350 CE) (200 CE)

| Philemon

| . A genuine Pauline epistle, written from an imprisonment (probably in Ephesus) that Paul expects will soon be over.

| (3rd century CE)

| Hebrews

| . The elegance of the Greek and the sophistication of the theology do not fit the genuine Pauline epistles, but the mention of Timothy in the conclusion led to its being included with the Pauline group from an early date.

| (late 2nd century or 3rd century CE)

| James

| . Like Hebrews, James is not so much a letter as an exhortation; the style of the Greek makes it unlikely that it was actually written by James the brother of Jesus.

| , (early 3rd century CE)

| First Peter

| (3rd/4th century CE)

| Second Peter

| . This is apparently the latest writing in the New Testament, quoting from Jude, assuming a knowledge of the Pauline letters, and including a reference to the gospel story of the Transfiguration of Christ.

| (3rd/4th century CE)

| Epistles of John

| . The letters give no clear indication, but scholars tend to place them about a decade after the Gospel of John.

| , Uncial 0232, Codex Sinaiticus (3rd/4th century CE)

| Jude

| Uncertain. The references to "brother of James" and to "what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold" suggest that it was written after the apostolic letters were in circulation, but before 2 Peter, which uses it.

| (3rd/4th century CE)

| Revelation

| . The date is suggested by clues in the visions pointing to the reign of the emperor Domitian.

| (150–200 CE)

Dating the Bible

Table I: Chronological overview

See also

References

Citations

Bibliography

Further reading