For those scholars who automatically disallow the possibility of miraculous acts by God, predictive prophecy, or the deity of Christ, the New Testament writings are often presented as having been written long after the lifetime of people involved in the events they recount. In fact, however, there are many good reasons for concluding that most, if not all, of the New Testament was written during the overlap period prior to the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD.

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The letters of Paul and Peter were written prior to their martyrdoms by Nero in 67-68 AD. The Temple is still standing when Hebrews is written, since it refers to it and the activities there in a present tense. The epistle of James is generally seen as among the earliest New Testament writings, due to its “Jewish” flavor, written in the 50s or 60s before the martyrdom of James in 62 AD. First, 2nd, and 3rd John give us no clues as to when they were written, other than the linguistic affinities to John’s gospel, so written in his lifetime. Likewise, all we can discern about Jude is its parallels with 2 Peter, and the lifespan of Jude, who was traditionally understood to having been martyred in the late 60s.

    

In regard to the Acts of the Apostles, the silence about later events beyond Paul’s arrival in Rome 62 AD, the “we” sections of Acts, and the precision in Luke’s use of the variety of often-changed titles for Roman officials in various places, all point to the historicity of Acts and its being written soon after the events it relates.

    

Since Acts was written by Luke only after he had written the Gospel of Luke, we have an early date for Luke, as well. And a careful study of Luke reveals that Mark’s Gospel was one of Luke’s sources. The first-person accounts included in the Gospels, as well as incidental details reflecting the period before the destruction of Jerusalem, attest to the Apostles’ testimony behind all of the four Gospels.

    

Finally, in recent years a solid case has been made for dating the book of Revelation to the latter part of Nero’s reign in the mid 60s. (See the book Before Jerusalem Fell, by Kenneth Gentry)

    

The fact of the writing and circulation in the period prior to 70 AD of all these documents which were ultimately brought together to form the New Testament, offers a crucial interpretation of the ultimate significance of the events of that era.

    

It is also significant that the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD was such a momentous event for the Jews, and could have been a major argument supporting the early Christians against the Jews if it had already been destroyed, yet it was an argument never used by the New Testament writers because it had not yet happened when they wrote! 

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