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"Wasn't [the New Testament] written like 300 years after Jesus?"
You're probably referring to 325 AD, which was when the Council of Nicea officially
recognized the New Testament. By then, early Christians had known and been
reading the New Testament as the Word of God already for 200 years.
Please pay close attention to the dates below:
Acts, the 5th book in the New Testament, is a methodical account of the early church
that was written
by a doctor named Luke when he served as the assistant to and the note taker for
the Apostle Paul.
62 AD was when Paul was martyred in Rome. 64 AD was when the Emperor Nero burnt
Rome and blamed the fire on Christians to launch the Roman persecution of
Christians. 70 AD was when the then general and future emperor Titus sacked
Jerusalem.
When Luke ends Acts, Paul had just arrived in Rome to start his 2-year
imprisonment prior to his execution. Acts ends without mentioning any of the
major events above, which indicates that it was written around 60 AD.
Luke begins Acts with,
"The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that
Jesus began both to do and teach..." (
Acts 1:1) The
“former account” Luke referred to was what we call
today the Gospel of Luke, which was also written to this man named Theophilus:
"Inasmuch as many
have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have
been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were
eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us, it seemed good
to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very
first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent
Theophilus, that
you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed."
(Luke 1:1-4)
The delivered eyewitness accounts Luke mentions above are the New Testament
Gospel of Matthew, which was written by one of Jesus' twelve Apostles, and the New
Testament Gospel
of Mark, written by the note taker for the Apostle Peter.
Estimating 3-5 years between Acts and the Gospel of Luke and
another 3-5 years between the Gospel of Luke and the Gospels of Matthew
and Mark places 50-57 AD as when three of the four New Testament Gospels were written,
which is only about 20 years after 33 AD, when they last saw Jesus.
Some of the other New Testament books were written before and some after
these Gospels, but all were writ
ten by eyewitnesses of Jesus or their note takers, and read by people who were also eyewitnesses and could validate
their details.
New Testament Manuscripts
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