How long after Jesus died was the New Testament written?

Answer 1

The Old Testament was already in existence when Jesus was alive. The New Testament of The Bible was written within the lifetime of those with whom Jesus had lived. The books were written between approximately 55AD and 90AD. This means they were written about 20 - 60 years after His death.

Answer 2

The crucifixion of Jesus is generally considered to have taken place between 30 and 33 CE.

The earliest books of the New Testament were the epistles of Paul, the Epistle to the Hebrews and, possibly, the Epistle of James. The genuine epistles of Paul are usually dated to the fifties of the first century, as is the anonymous Book of Hebrews. The Epistle of James is hard to date, but is widely thought to have been written in the same period as Paul's epistles.

It is now known that Mark's Gospel was the first New Testament Gospel to have been written (the Gospel of Thomas may have been earlier) and that it was written approximately 70 CE - that is about forty years after the time of the crucifixion. Matthew's Gospel follows in the eighties, and Luke in the nineties, then John's Gospel early in the second century.

The pseudo-Pauline 'Pastoral' epistles (1 Timothy, 2 Timothy and Titus) were clearly written in the second century, and the Epistle of Jude self-identifies as being from this post-apostolic period. The last epistle to be written is thought to be the epistle known as the second epistle of Peter, which is dated later in the first half of the second century.

Answer 3

The Old Testament was written long before the time Jesus was alive. The last New Testament book to be written is now known to have been 2 Peter, written pseudepigraphically shortly before 150 CE.