Dating the New Testament
Summary of the Period
To summarise again, one can divide the New Testament period after the resurrection into four sections based on Acts. The first of these is the pre-Pauline period when Acts concentrates on the doings of Peter and the other Apostles and Evangelists rather than on Paul. In 48AD this changes with Paul’s First Missionary Journey in that year, and the journeys period begins. This lasts until Paul’s imprisonment in 57AD and we then have the captivity period to 62AD. Finally there is a post-Acts period which generally runs out in the mid 60’s AD.
Having laid this foundation one can move on to look at individual books. This section concentrates on the Pauline epistles from the journeys period because of their contact with Acts.
Galatians
- There were Ecclesias in Galatia The destination of the epistle is given in Gal 1:2b as: “To the churches of Galatia.” To risk stating the obvious, this epistle was written to the ecclesias of Galatia. These were founded on Paul’s First Missionary Journey in 48AD, so the letter is later than this.
- Paul lists his visits to Jerusalem Paul’s argument about his own authority is based
on the lack of contact between himself and the Apostles in Jerusalem. “For I would
have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according
to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it
through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” (Gal 1:11,12) Paul then goes on to describe
his visits to Jerusalem after his baptism.
“Then three years later I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas, and stayed with him fifteen days.” (Gal 1:18) This is the visit after Paul’s conversion when he is accepted by the Jerusalem Apostles, but then sent to Tarsus. “Then after an interval of fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along also.” (Gal 2:1) This is Paul’s second visit to Jerusalem, which would have to be the famine relief visit. No other visits are listed, which tells us that Galatians was written before the Council of Jerusalem.
Incidentally, the account of Paul’s two visits to Jerusalem allows us to date his baptism (ch 2:1) The fourteen years here must be dated from the baptism of Paul, not from the earlier visit, or Paul would have had to have been baptised before the crucifixion! The famine relief visit was late 46AD, so Paul’s baptism must have been in 32 or 33AD. This would mean that the resurrection of Jesus was most likely in 30AD.
Other points that support this dating are the fact that Galatians deals with exactly the same issues as the Council of Jerusalem. If the Council had already taken place one would have expected some mention of it. Further support comes from Gal 2:11,12 - “But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision.” As both Peter and James were at the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15:7) it is difficult to see how Peter could have stood against Paul once the Council was concluded; and as the letter giving the findings of the council was sent out by James it is difficult to see how anyone would claim that James had decided in favour of requiring circumcision and obedience to the law.
The letter to the Galatians must therefore have been written in 48AD before the Council of Jerusalem, and probably early in the year.