Scholars[who?] generally date the synoptic gospels as having been written after the epistles of Paul and before the gospel according to John, thus between 60 and 115 AD. As to the specific dates for each book, this largely depends on (or supports) the particular hypothesis used to account for the books' textual relationship.
A student of Polycarp, a disciple of John, wrote that Polycarp taught that Matthew wrote his Gospel first, Mark wrote Peter’s Teachings, Luke wrote Paul’s teachings and John wrote his last. Papias, also a disciple of John, confirms the order of the writing. Clement I wrote that Mark wrote the teachings of Peter and when Peter learned of it, he gave it his blessing.

The Fourth Gospel, like the three Synoptic Gospels, is anonymous in that it does not bear its author's name. The title, "According to John," was attached when the four Gospels were gathered together and began to circulate as one collection

Instead of fearing God as a vengeful, insecure, incompetent, sadistic being, my God just wants me to Do the Right Thing. There are no 10 Commandments, no holy books, no preaching to me or by me, no rules to do my thinking for me, since part of my karma to be worked out is that I have to establish the level and standard of morality and accountability that I have to be held to. And held to by me. I am my own judge come my judgment day. God will sit there and ask me if I think I have more to learn.

I also have some issues with the 'validity' of the NT, I mean it was written at least 70+ years after JC (If he was real).

The Synoptic Gospels believed to be written just after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, or about 40 years after the death of Christ

However, 18th Century scholars increasingly questioned the traditional view of composition, and today most of modern critical scholarship hesitates to say that Matthew wrote this Gospel which bears his name, preferring instead to describe the author as an anonymous Jewish Christian, writing towards the end of the first century...

The date of the gospel is not precisely known. The majority of scholars date the gospel between the years 70 and 100.[34][35]

Most contemporary scholars describe the author as an anonymous Jewish Christian writer, who wrote the Gospel of Matthew found in the Bible around the year 80. According to scholars this writer used the Gospel of Mark and Q Source to compose his gospel. [4]

4: a b c Amy-Jill Levine (2001), p.372-373
34: Brown 1997, p. 172
35: Ehrman 2004, p. 110 and Harris 1985 both specify a range c. 80-85; However, Gundry 1982, Hagner 1993, and Blomberg 1992 argue for a date before 70AD.

The writings of Ignatius show "a strong case ... for [his] knowledge of four Pauline epistles and the Gospel of Matthew"[36], which gives a terminus ad quem of c. 110. The author of the Didache (c 100) probably knew it as well.[32] Some scholars see the prophecies of the destruction of Jerusalem (e.g. in Matthew 22:7) as suggesting a date of authorship after the siege and destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD:[37] however Bishop John A. T. Robinson argues that the lack of a passage indicating the fulfillment of the prophecy suggest a date before that[38]. Matthew does not mention the death of James in 62 AD. It also lacks any narrative on the persecutions of the early Christians by Nero.

Jack, I have always been curious about the canon of the Bible which occured hundreds of years after Jesus was actually on earth. If Jesus wanted that to happen, don't you think the Apostles would have done it?

While I trust wiki for a lot of things, when it comes to agenda mired subjects, not so much. Interesting stuff though.

...is a key question in identifying the authors.

Mary Magdalene would not have had the education to write, so the authors need to be people with writing skills. She might have told the story to someone who had writing skills.

When considering biblical history be aware of the secular culture of he time.

Not a Prostitute
Mary of Magdala is perhaps the most maligned and misunderstood figure in early Christianity. In Christian art and hagiography, Mary has been romanticized, allegorized, and mythologized beyond recognition. Since the fourth century, she has been portrayed as a prostitute and public sinner who, after encountering Jesus, repented and spent the rest of her life in private prayer and penitence. Paintings, some little more than pious pornography, reinforce the mistaken belief that sexuality, especially female sexuality, is shameful, sinful, and worthy of repentance. Yet the actual biblical account of Mary of Magdala paints a far different portrait than that of the bare-breasted reformed harlot of Renaissance art.

First Witness to the Resurrection
Nowhere in scripture is Mary of Magdala identified as a public sinner or a prostitute. Instead, scripture shows her as the primary witness to the most central events of Christian faith, named in exactly the same way (Maria e Magdalena) in each of four gospels written for diverse communities throughout the Mediterranean world. It was impossible to relate the story of the Resurrection without including "Mary, the one from Magdala."

Luke 8,1-3 tells us that Mary traveled with Jesus in the Galilean discipleship and, with Joanna and Susanna, supported his mission from her own financial resources. In the synoptic gospels, Mary leads the group of women who witness Jesus' death, burial, the empty tomb, and His Resurrection. The synoptics contrast Jesus' abandonment by the male disciples with the faithful strength of the women disciples who, led by Mary, accompany him to his death. John's gospel names Mary of Magdala as the first to discover the empty tomb and shows the Risen Christ sending her to announce the Good News of his resurrection to the other disciples. This prompted early church Fathers to name her "the Apostle to the Apostles."

That the message of the resurrection was first entrusted to women is regarded by scripture scholars as strong proof for the historicity of the resurrection accounts. Had accounts of Jesus' resurrection been fabricated, women would never have been chosen as witnesses, since Jewish law did not acknowledge the testimony of women.

Early non-canonical Christian writings show faith communities growing up around Mary's ministry, where she is portrayed as understanding Jesus' message better than did Peter and the male disciples. Scholars tell us that these writings are not about the historical persons Mary and Peter but instead reflect tensions over women's roles in the early church. Prominent leaders such as Mary and Peter were evoked to justify opposing points of view. What is not disputed is the recognition of Mary of Magdala as an important woman leader in earliest Christianity.

What Happened?
Why are contemporary Christians uninformed about Mary's faithful discipleship and prominent leadership role in the infant church? One explanation is a common misreading of Luke's gospel which tells us that "seven demons had gone out of her." (Luke 8,1-3) To first century ears, this meant only that Mary had been cured of serious illness, not that she was sinful. According to biblical scholars such as Sr. Mary Thompson, illness was commonly attributed to the work of evil spirits, although not necessarily associated with sinfulness. The number seven symbolized that her illness was either chronic or very severe.

Women Leaders Suppressed
In 312, when Constantine made Christianity the religion of the empire, the Christian community was caught in a cultural conflict as it moved from worship in house churches where women's leadership was accepted, to worship in public places where women's leadership violated Roman social codes of honor and shame. In the fourth century, male church leaders at the Council of Laodicea suppressed women leaders because of the belief that women were created subordinate to men. During this same time period, we see the memory of Mary of Magdala changing from that of a strong female disciple and proclaimer of the Resurrection to a repentant prostitute and public sinner. Scholars such as Dr. Jane Schaberg believe this was done deliberately to discourage female leadership in the church.

As knowledge of Jesus' many women disciples faded from historical memory, their stories merged and blurred. The tender anointing of Mary of Bethany prior to Jesus' passion was linked to the woman "known to be a sinner" whose tears washed and anointed Jesus' feet at Simon's house. The anointing texts combined all of these women into one generic public sinner, "Magdalen." Misidentification of Mary as reformed public sinner achieved official standing with a powerful homily by Pope Gregory the Great (540-604).

Henceforth, Mary of Magdala became known in the west, not as the strong woman leader who accompanied Jesus through a tortuous death, first witnessed his Resurrection, and proclaimed the Risen Savior to the early church, but as a wanton woman in need of repentance and a life of hidden (and hopefully silent) penitence. Interestingly, the eastern church never identified her as a prostitute, but honored her throughout history as "the Apostle to the Apostles".

Magdalene was a Christian leader, not a repentant prostitute


By Victor Greto, for The Gazette

Who is Mary Magdalene? A prostitute and sinner who repented after Jesus saved her from being stoned by a mob -- the same Mary who then saw the risen Christ first?

According to some Christians and scholars, it's time to rethink the prostitute and stoning stuff.

Mary Magdalene is becoming a role model for women who expect more important roles for themselves in their respective churches. And scholars use Mary Magdalene as a symbol of the important role of women in early Christianity, as they work out the implications of recently discovered ancient literature.

The current reform of Mary Magdalene has centuries of church and art tradition to overcome. The non-biblical image of Magdalene as a repentant prostitute is an image that had been officially sanctioned by the Roman Catholic Church in the sixth century. And it's that image that has been perpetuated by dozens of Christian paintings and movies ever since.

The misreading of Mary Magdalene, critics say, is almost as ancient as the Gospels of the New Testament themselves, if only because there are up to five different Marys in the Gospels and seven in the New Testament as a whole.

The greatest damage done to Magdalene's reputation, however, is only partly the confusion of these Marys, says Sister Evelina Belfiore, director of Catholic education for the Colorado Springs, Colo., diocese. The main problem is the way some decided to identify an unnamed woman with Magdalene in the Gospel of Luke.

In 7:37-38, Luke tells the tale of a woman, "a sinner" who goes into a dinner party and anoints Jesus' feet. The following chapter immediately introduces "Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out. . . ."

"In the early church," Belfiore says, "as people have placed her in art and legend and misinterpretation, they linked her with the sinner from the chapter before."

Take Martin Scorsese's `Last Temptation of Christ' as one of the more recent examples. In the film, based on the Nikos Kazantzakis novel, Magdalene is portrayed as a prostitute and is identified with another episode often included in the Gospel of John 8:3-11, in which Jesus stops a crowd from stoning a woman for prostitution. There is no indication in the text that either unnamed woman is Magdalene, but tradition has linked her with Magdalene.

Why?

That link, Belfiore says, came about in the early church of later centuries "and may have been associated with the oppression of women. Before that, women were ordained deaconesses. Then, there was a turnabout, excluding women from the sacred and from orders. Mary Magdalene had such a privileged role in the Gospels that it seems there was an attempt to put her in a bad light."

Which is exactly what Sister Christine Schenk says she is trying to reverse. Schenk is executive director of the Cleveland-based FutureChurch.

Two years ago, Schenk's group in conjunction with another Catholic group, Chicago-based Call to Action, launched the national observance of a July 22 feast of Mary Magdalene. It has grown from 28 prayer services last year to a reported 100 services this past July.

"The Mary Magdala project emerged," Schenk says, "because it makes contemporary biblical scholarship available, and it provides woman ministers to preside at a prayer service."

Schenk says her group is not calling for women's ordination but for "women's equal call to ministry in the Catholic Church."

Schenk said the Magdalene services include a "brief reflection on Mary of Magdala," and what she calls "the right of naming." That is, when Jesus calls Magdalene by her name in the Gospel passage John 20:17, "she recognized him" as the risen Christ, and she was called as a disciple.

Schenk thus sees Magdalene as representing a woman's call to discipleship. In the past, she says, women have internalized the idea that they weren't as holy or as good as men. The Magdalene services are "a real healing for many participants," she says.

The emergence of women in organized religion is not only a Catholic issue.The Rev. Patricia Westlake of Trinity United Methodist Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., says she believes Magdalene was present at the Last Supper.

And she believes other female disciples were on a par with the more famous 12 male apostles. In two of his letters, St. Paul also mentions important women of the early church. "For me, the Scriptures give [women] a prominent role," Westlake says. "Jesus gave them a prominent role. It's our culture that doesn't give them a prominent role."

Feminist scholars of early Christianity see Mary Magdalene as indicative of what happened to women in general in the early church. "In the last twenty years, the history of women in ancient Christianity has been almost completely revised," writes Karen King in a recent essay about women in early Christianity. King is a professor of New Testament Studies and the History of Ancient Christianity at Harvard University's Divinity School.

King writes that the early Christian women we thought we knew have almost nothing to do with the revised portrait that scholars are just beginning to unveil. "Chief among these is Mary Magdalene," she says. "Discoveries of new texts . . . have now proven that [her reputation as a repentant prostitute] is entirely inaccurate. She was indeed an influential figure, but as a prominent disciple and leader of one wing of the early Christian movement that promoted women's leadership."

Among the newly discovered texts King is referring to is `The Gospel of Mary,' discovered at Nag Hammadi in Egypt more than a half-century ago. In that Gospel, Mary receives secret revelations from Jesus -- much to the chagrin of Peter.`The Gospel of Philip,' also discovered at Nag Hammadi, shows yet another understanding of Mary's relationship with Jesus.

"But Christ loved her more than all the disciples and used to kiss her often on the mouth," that Gospel reads. "The rest of the disciples were offended by it and expressed disapproval. They said to him, `Why do you love her more than all of us?' The savior answered and said to them, `Why do I not love you like (I love) her?' "

Scholars say they are not arguing that these are historically truer portraits than those of the New Testament Gospels. But they argue that these Gospels show there were early Christian communities that traced their beliefs back to a figure known as Mary Magdalene -- which had nothing to do with the traditional figure of a repentant prostitute.

Even those women in established religions who do not accept the non-canonical Gospels as legitimate sources see hope for women in a closer reading of the four Gospels of the New Testament. "I think she's a model for women today," Belfiore says of Magdalene. "That when Jesus spoke to Mary to go tell the other disciples he was risen, it shows that woman has a complementary role in the mission and that we need one another. It's not a man's church or a woman's church, but a church. Women have a specific dimension of the mission."

One other observation.... Why did it take so long for the church to allow normal people to actually be able to read the bible for themselves?

Still, the proof is lacking regarding they being written by eye-witnesses.

(I was going to ask for a source, but you don't like giving those either.)

And for the record, Wikipedia is NOT a reliable source. Anyone can just go in there and change it. More to the point, if you're not very well read on a subject and you're trying to argue with someone who has read about it, Wikipedia will only show how little you know about the subject.

Anyway, I do hope you become educated, one way or another.

I wouldn't want someone to read this thread and be taken in by your nonsense about the Gospels being written "70+ years" after Christ.

How do you propose we know for sure that the Gospels were written after 100 CE or "70+ years after Christ"?

I can't imagine having to fear an ideal to gain anything.

that proverb, imo, is a nasty way to put down those that think differently and not in a higher power.

again, I guess that my denseness just won't allow the notion of "fear" as a positive force in my life.

mighty christian way of thinking.