Dating the Bible


The four tables give the most commonly accepted dates or ranges of dates for the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, the Deuterocanonical books and the New Testament, including, where possible, hypotheses about their formation-history.
Table I is a chronological overview. Table II treats the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible books, grouped according to the divisions of the Hebrew Bible with occasional reference to scholarly divisions. Table III gives the Deuterocanonical books. Table IV gives the books of the New Testament, including the earliest preserved fragments for each. The tables are in chronological order in reference to how they read in 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.
PeriodBooks
Monarchic
8th–7th centuries BCE
c. 745–586 BCE
Exilic
6th century BCE
586–539 BCE
  • Core of Obadiah around the fall of Jerusalem, 586 BCE.
  • Completion of Deuteronomistic history.
  • 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" active in Babylon around mid-century.
  • Expansion and reshaping of Hosea, Amos, Micah and Zephaniah.
  • Possible early Psalms collection ending with psalm 89.
    • Post-exilic
    Persian
    5th–4th centuries BCE
    538–330 BCE
  • Torah, with 250 BCE as terminus ad quem for the production of the final text on the basis of the extant 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"
  • Later version of Jeremiah
  • Haggai,
  • Zechariah
  • Malachi
  • Chronicles
  • Origins of Ezra–Nehemiah.
    • Post-exilic
    Hellenistic
    3rd–2nd centuries BCE
    330–164 BCE
  • Job, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs.
  • Book of Jonah.
  • Most of the individual psalms making up the final third of the Book of Psalms.
    • Maccabean/Hasmonean
    2nd–1st centuries BCE
    164–4 BCE
  • Daniel.
  • 1 Maccabees/2 Maccabees/3 Maccabees/possibly 4 Maccabees; Tobit, Judith, Additions to Daniel and Additions to Esther
  • Wisdom of Solomon late 1st century BCE or early to mid 1st century CE.
    • Roman
    1st century CE onward
    after 4 BCE
  • 4 Maccabees.
  • Wisdom of Solomon.
  • New Testament.

    • Table II: Hebrew Bible/Protestant Old Testament

    TorahDate or range of dates most widely held by scholars
    Book of Genesis
    Book of Exodus
    Book of Leviticus
    Book of Numbers
    Book of Deuteronomy    		The majority of modern biblical scholars believe that the Torah – the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy – reached its present form in the post-Exilic period.
    The five books are drawn from four "sources" : the Priestly source, the Yahwist and the Elohist, and the Deuteronomist. There is general agreement that the Priestly source is post-exilic, but there is no agreement over the non-Priestly source.
    • Genesis is a post-exilic work combining "Priestly" and "non-Priestly" material.
    • Exodus is an anthology drawn from nearly all periods of Israel's history.
    • Leviticus is entirely Priestly and dates from the exilic/post-exilic period.
    • Numbers is a Priestly redaction of a Yahwistic/non-Priestly original.
    • Deuteronomy, now the last book of the Torah, began as the set of religious laws, was extended in the early part of the 6th century to serve as the introduction to the Deuteronomistic history, and later still was detached from that history, extended yet again, and edited to conclude the Torah.
    ProphetsDate or range of dates most widely held by scholars
    Former Prophets: Book of Joshua
    Book of Judges
    Books of Samuel
    Books of Kings    		This group of books, plus Deuteronomy, is called the "Deuteronomistic history" by scholars. The proposal that they made up a unified work was first advanced by Martin Noth in 1943, and has been widely accepted. Noth proposed that the entire history was the creation of a single individual working in the exilic period ; since then there has been wide recognition that the history appeared in two "editions", the first in the reign of Judah's King Josiah, the second during the exile. Noth's dating was based on the assumption that the history was completed very soon after its last recorded event, the release of King Jehoiachin in Babylon c. 560 BCE; but some scholars have termed his reasoning inadequate, and the history may have been further extended in the post-exilic period.
    Three Major Prophets:
    Book of Isaiah
    Book of Jeremiah
    Book of Ezekiel    		Scholars recognise three "sections" in the Book of Isaiah: Proto-Isaiah ; Deutero-Isaiah ; and Trito-Isaiah.
    The Book of Jeremiah exists in two versions, Greek and Hebrew, with the Greek representing the earlier version. The Greek version was probably finalised in the early Persian period and translated into Greek in the 3rd century BCE, and the Hebrew version dates from some point between then and the 2nd century BCE.
    The Book of Ezekiel describes itself as the words of the Ezekiel ben-Buzi, a priest living in exile in the city of Babylon, and internal evidence dates the visions to between 593 and 571 BCE. While the book probably reflects much of the historic Ezekiel, it is the product of a long and complex history, with significant additions by a "school" of later followers.
    Twelve Minor ProphetsIn the Hebrew Bible the Twelve Minor Prophets are a single collection edited in the Second Temple period, but the collection is broken up in Christian Bibles. With the exception of Jonah, which is a fictional work, there exists an original core of prophetic tradition behind each book:
    • Book of Hosea: second half of the 8th century BCE
    • Book of Joel: late Persian or Hellenistic
    • Book of Amos: first half of the 8th century
    • Book of Obadiah: around the time of the fall of Jerusalem, 586 BCE
    • Book of Jonah: Persian or Hellenistic, no later than 2nd century BCE
    • Book of Micah: c. 750–700 BCE
    • Book of Nahum: an "oracle concerning Nineveh", the Assyrian city destroyed in 612 BCE
    • Book of Habakkuk: possibly shortly before the battle of Carchemish, 605 BCE
    • Book of Zephaniah: reign of Josiah
    • Book of Haggai: self-dated to the second year of the Persian king Darius, 520 BCE
    • Book of Zechariah: first eight chapters contemporary with Haggai; chapters 9–14 from the 5th century
    • Book of Malachi: 5th century BCE, contemporaneous or immediately prior to the missions of Nehemiah and Ezra
    WritingsDate or range of dates most widely held by scholars
    Wisdom collection:
    Job, Ecclesiastes and Proverbs    		The books of Job, Ecclesiastes and Proverbs share a similar outlook which they themselves call "wisdom". It is generally agreed that Job comes from between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE. Ecclesiastes can be no earlier than about 450 BCE, due to the presence of Persian loan-words and Aramaic idioms, and no later than 180 BCE, when the Jewish writer Ben Sira quotes from it. Proverbs is a "collection of collections" relating to a pattern of life which lasted for more than a millennium, and impossible to date.
    Poetic works: Psalms and LamentationsThe psalms making up the first two-thirds of the psalter are predominantly pre-exilic and the last third predominantly post-exilic. The collected book of Psalms was possibly given its modern shape and division into five parts in the post-exilic period, although it continued to be revised and expanded well into Hellenistic and even Roman times. It is generally accepted that the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon in 586 BCE forms the background to the Book of Lamentations.
    Histories: Chronicles and Ezra–NehemiahChronicles was composed between 400–250 BCE, probably in the period 350–300 BCE; Ezra–Nehemiah may have reached its final form as late as the Ptolemaic period, c. 300–200 BCE.
    Miscellaneous works: Book of Ruth, Book of Esther, Book of Daniel, Song of SongsThe Book of Ruth is commonly dated to the Persian period; Esther to the 3rd or 4th centuries BCE; the Book of Daniel can be dated more precisely to 164 BCE thanks to its veiled prophecy of the death of a Greek king of Syria; and the Song of Songs could have been composed at any time after the 6th century BCE.

    Table III: Deuterocanonical Old Testament

    BookDate or range of dates most widely held by scholars
    Tobit225–175 BCE, on the basis of apparent use of language and references common to the post-exilic period, but lack of knowledge of the 2nd century BCE persecution of Jews.
    Judith150–100 BCE, although estimates range from the 5th century BCE to the 2nd century CE.
    1 Maccabees100 BCE
    2 Maccabeesc. 100 BCE
    3 Maccabees100–75 BCE "very probable"
    4 Maccabeesmid-1st century CE
    Wisdom of Solomonlate 1st century BCE/early 1st century CE, on the basis of shared outlook with other works dating from this time.
    Sirach196–175 BCE, as the author implies that Simon the high priest had died, but shows no knowledge of the persecution of the Jews that began after 175 BCE.
    Additions to DanielPrayer of Azariah ; Bel and the Dragon: late 6th century; Susanna and the Elders: possibly 95–80 BCE
    Baruch and Letter of Jeremiah2nd century BCE, as Baruch uses Sirach and is in turn used by the Psalms of Solomon. The Letter of Jeremiah, ch. 6:1–73 of the Book of Baruch, is sometimes considered a separate book.

    Table IV: New Testament

    BookDate or range of dates most widely held by scholarsEarliest known fragment
    Gospel of Matthewc. 80–90 CE. This is based on three strands of evidence: the setting of Matthew reflects the final separation of Church and Synagogue, about 85 CE; it reflects the capture of Jerusalem and destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 CE; it uses Mark, usually dated around 70 CE, as a source.
    Gospel of Markc. 65–73 CE. References to persecution and to war in Judea suggest that its context was either Nero's persecution of the Christians in Rome or the Jewish revolt.
    Gospel of Lukec. 80–90 CE. Text indicates written a generation after that of the first disciples, uses Gospel of Mark, and appears to address concerns raised by the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE.,
    Gospel of Johnc. 90–110 CE, the upper date based on textual evidence that the gospel was known in the early 2nd century, and the lower on an internal reference to the expulsion of Christians from the synagogues.
    Actsc. 80–90 CE, 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 ; 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 is more likely.,,,,
    Romansc. 57–58 CE. 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.
    1 Corinthiansc. 53–57 CE. One of the indisputably genuine Pauline letters. Paul expresses his intention to re-visit the church he founded in the city c. 50–52 CE.
    2 Corinthiansc. 55–58 CE. One of the indisputably genuine Pauline letters. Written by Paul in Macedonia after having left Ephesus.
    Galatiansc. 48 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.
    Ephesiansc. 80–90 CE. The letter appears to have been written after Paul's death in Rome, by an author who uses his name.
    Philippiansc. 54–55 CE. 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.
    Colossiansc. 62–70 CE. Some scholars believe Colossians dates from Paul's imprisonment in Ephesus around 55 CE, but differences in the theology suggest that it comes from much later in his career, around the time of his imprisonment in Rome.
    1 Thessaloniansc. 51 CE. One of the earliest of the genuine Pauline epistles.
    2 Thessaloniansc. 51 CE 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.
    1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Epistle to Titusc. 100 CE. The two Timothy epistles and Titus reflect a much more developed Church organisation than that reflected in the genuine Pauline epistles.Codex Sinaiticus
    Philemonc. 54–55 CE. A genuine Pauline epistle, written from an imprisonment that Paul expects will soon be over.
    Hebrewsc. 80–90 CE. 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.
    Jamesc. 65–85 CE. 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.,
    First Peterc. 75–90 CE
    Second Peterc. 110 CE. 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.
    Epistles of Johnc. 90–110 CE. The letters give no clear indication, but scholars tend to place them about a decade after the Gospel of John., Uncial 0232, Codex Sinaiticus
    JudeUncertain. 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.
    Revelationc. 95 CE. The date is suggested by clues in the visions pointing to the reign of the emperor Domitian.

    Citations