Category: Theology

Here are the Epistles of the Apostle Paul in chronological order with estimated date of composition.

Galatians – Apostle.Paul (48)
1 Thessalonians – Apostle Paul (50)
2 Thessalonians – Apostle Paul (52)
1 Corinthians – Apostle Paul (54)
Romans – Apostle Paul (56)
Philippians – Apostle Paul (56)
2 Corinthians – Apostle Paul (57)
Ephesians – Apostle Paul (62)
Colossians – Apostle Paul (62)
Philemon – Apostle Paul (64)

These have been falsely attributed to Paul

1 Timothy – pseudo Paul (100)
2 Timothy – pseudo Paul(100)
Titus – pseudo Paul (100)
Hebrews – author unknown (63)

Dates for Paul

Birth date: 5 CE
Martyred 64-68 CE

The following are the authors and my estimated date of their composition. All dates are C.E.

Matthew – author unknown (80)
Mark – Mark (70)
Luke – Luke (85)
John – Apostle John (95)
Acts – Luke (85)
Romans – Apostle Paul (56)
1 Corinthians – Apostle Paul (54)
2 Corinthians – Apostle Paul (57)
Galatians – Apostle.Paul (48)
Ephesians – Apostle Paul (62)
Philippians – Apostle Paul (56)
Colossians – Apostle Paul (62)
1 Thessalonians – Apostle Paul (50)
2 Thessalonians – Apostle Paul (52)
1 Timothy – pseudo Paul (100)
2 Timothy – pseudo Paul(100)
Titus – pseudo Paul (100)
Philemon – Apostle Paul (64)
Hebrews – author unknown (63)
James – elder James (60)
1 Peter – Apostle Peter (63)
2 Peter – pseudo Peter (125)
1 John – elder John (101)
2 John – elder John (101
3 John – elder John (101)
Jude – pseudo Jude (90)
Revelation – elder John (96)

The dates below include the traditional (T) date and the current scholarly (S) consensus date. All dates are C.E.

Matthew T:60 S:80-90
Mark T:50 S:70
Luke T:55-60 S:80-90
John T: 80 S:95
Acts T:60-63 S:85-100
Romans T: 57-58 S:56-57
1 Corinthians T:53-54 S:54-56
2 Corinthians T: 55-56 S:57
Galatians T:48-50 S:50-52
Ephesians T:60-62 S:70-90
Philippians T:61-63 S:56-63
Colossians T:60-62 S:70-90
1 Thessalonians T:50-51 S:49-51
2 Thessalonians T:51-52 S:70-90
1 Timothy T:63-65 S:80-120
2 Timothy T:63-65 S:80-120
Titus T:63-65 C.E. S:80-120
Philemon T:60-62 C.E. S:54-56 or 63-64
Hebrews T:63-65 S:80-90
James T:40-60 S:80-120
1 Peter. T:60-64 S:70-90
2 Peter T: 64-68 S:120-130
1 John T:85-95 S:100-110
2 John T:85-95 S:100-110
3 John T:85-95 S:100-110
Jude T:40-50 S:50-90
Revelation T:94-96 S:94-96

Source:

When Was the New Testament Written? Marko Marina.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27).

“May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:23).

The Apostle Paul seems to divide human psychology up into “spirit and soul and body.” Jesus divided human psychology into heart, soul, strength (body), and mind. And it appears that spirit and soul are not the same thing, since the word of God “divides soul from spirit” (Heb. 4:12).

What are all these parts and how do they fit together? Understanding that the Bible is no univocal, I still think we can make sense of the New Testament general meaning of these terms.

The body is the easiest, we all know what that means. The mind is fairly easy, it is the part of us that thinks. Now it gets harder.

The heart is the will, the center of our moral choices. It refers to the “intentions of the heart” (Heb 4:12). It included our disposition, our intentions and motives, as well as the choice itself.

The soul and spirit are sometimes used to refer to the nonphysical part of us. Other times they are distinguished. When they are distinguished, the soul refers to our emotional part and the spirit refers to consciousness.

They you have the best explanation of the basic make up of our human psychology according to the New Testament. At least, I think it matches Paul’s understanding. But again, I do not insist on the univocality of the Biblical record.

The first thing to realize, is that God did not write the Bible. It contains words attributed to God, but it is not words directly from God.

They Said God Said

It’s important to understand the distinction. Is the difference between what I say my mother said, and what my mother actually said. I hear things through a filter.

It is the same with the authors of the Bible. God may have truly spoke to them, but it is filtered through their personality and cultural context. It is just like light through stained glass, the stained glass changes the hue and color of the light.

If we don’t keep this in mind, we can interpret the Bible literally. Which is going to cause all kinds of problems. The Bible constantly counterdicts itself. How can that be if it was written by God.

God Did Not Write It

The truth is that God did not write the Bible. Men wrote the Bible. They wrote it from their perspective, their limited understanding, and they’re biased and prejudiced viewpoints. And these come through in the text.

So he must read the Bible as the words of men about the message of God. The message of God is sometimes blurred, sometimes distorted, and sometimes insightful.

The Bible is Not Univocal

We should take the Bible seriously, but not literally. We have to interpret each author within their own cultural and historical context. The Bible is not univocal. It doesn’t have one author, it has many. Therefore one author should not interpret another.

This is important. Too often a uniformity is forced upon the text. And this uniformity distorts the text, causing it to be misunderstood. Only the author can interpret the author. Only Paul can interpret Paul. So it’s important to know which letters are from Paul, and which ones are not.

I say that because we know that 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy and Titus were not written by the apostle Paul. We can call the author pseudo-Paul. Whoever it was, he wrote after Paul was already long dead. His language and style of writing is different. Therefore, these letters should not be used to interpret the other Epistles of Paul.

Rethinking Our Interpretation

This is only the beginning of rethinking our interpretation and understanding the Bible. It’s important to realize that the Bible is not a book, but a library of books written by different men, in different situations, at different times, with different historical and cultural contexts, and woth different agendas.

The Bible was not written by God. It is written by men. Therefore they should be used and interpreted carefully. We should honor the differences and not negate them with a uniformity they never had.