Who wrote about the life of Jesus when Jesus was alive?

Answer 1

We have no records of life of Jesus at the time he was living on earth. However, this does not mean that none were written - just that, if they did exist, they did not survive. Of the Gospel accounts the earliest written was believed to be Mark around 20-30 years after Jesus' death and resurrection. Luke and Matthew (and Luke's second book Acts of the Apostles), and John's Gospel is believed to have been written around 90-100 AD when John was in his 80s. Other non-biblical writers like Flavius Josephus and Pliny wrote around these times too. It has been worked out that some of Paul's letters - beginning with the first letter to the Thessalonians may predate even Mark's Gospel but this does not mean that the writings came from Jesus's time on earth, but from a time when there was already a church established in Thessaloniki a few years after Jesus' Crucifixion and resurrection.

There are two points of interest, however: First, the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew was a tax collector for the Roman occupying authorities. Tax collectors were highly trained in accountancy but also in a form of shorthand. It is interesting to note that whereas in the other Gospels they concentrate a lot on what Jesus did, Matthew's Gospel includes large passages of what Jesus actually said. Parables, the Sermon on the Mount, his prophesies on the end of the world and so on. Many scholars now think that Matthew my well have taken down these sayings of Jesus verbatim and as they happened, in his shorthand, only including them in his Gospel account at a later date, after the churches spread over the Mediterranean area where passing on stories by word-of-mouth would be impractical. Therefore, Matthew may well be the key to writing about Jesus when he was on the earth.

The second point comes from the wording of the question. Christians will say that after the resurrection Jesus was restored to a wonderful resurrection life and ascended into heaven. Therefore, Jesus is alive today. Christians all over the world know that Jesus dwells within them and has made a significant difference in their lives thanks to his being alive even today. So, in a sense, all writings about Jesus, from Mark to John, from Augustine to Wesley, from C S Lewis to Alistair McGrath have been written while he was alive.

(Actually the "Author" is partially correct, however, we now know the Gnostic text: "The Gospel of Thomas" is the earliest known book of The Bible. Though, rejected by the Church, the book contains the closest transcripts of Jesus. All of which are found in the bible, with minor variations, and some quotes, that the Church itself dislikes.)