The Gospel of John was written by the end of the 1st century. Tradition holds that it was compiled by John the Theologian, the son of Zebedee (see Mt 10:2; Mk 3:17; Lk 6:14; Jn 21:2, 24).
Then, John, the disciple of Jesus who lay on His bosom [Jn 13:23], also published his Gospel during his time in Ephesus in Asia (Irenaeus of Lyons. Against Heresies, 3,1,1; compare Eusebius of Caesarea. Church History, 5,8).
John, the apostle, the one especially loved by Jesus [Jn 21:20, 24], the son of Zebedee and the brother of Jacob who was beheaded by Herod after the sufferings of the Lord, last of all wrote his Gospel at the request of some bishops in Asia who contended against Cerinthus and other heretics, especially the teachings of Ebionites who taught that Christ didnt exist before Mary. So, John was asked to speak in defense of the doctrine of Divine Birth. There was yet another reason: having read the works of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, John approved of their narratives and confirmed that they contained the truth, noting that these narratives only describe was happened during the one year after John [the Baptist] was put in prison and executed. So, he himself wrote about a period preceding Johns imprisonment, and it can be a revelation for those who diligently read the works of the Gospel-writers. In addition, this consideration removes the contradictions that seemed to exist between the text of John and others On the fourteenth year after Nero [82 NE] Domitian began the second persecution against Christians. John was exiled to the island of Patmos and wrote there the Apocalypse, which was later commented on by Justin Martyr and Irenaeus. But after Domitians death [96 NE] and the abolition of his cruel decrees, John returned to the city of Ephesus and, remaining there until the arrival of the emperor Trajan, contributed in every way to the planting of churches throughout Asia. Died of old age in the 68th year after the Passion of the Lord and was buried near Ephesus (Jerome of Stridon. On Famous Men, 7; compare Eusebius of Caesarea. Church History, 3,24,714).
So, out of the four canonical Gospels, two were written by the closest disciples of Jesus Christ, the apostles John and Matthew, who were eyewitnesses of the described events. The other two were written by Mark and Luke, the disciples of Jesus, who belonged to the Seventy and were called at a later time (see Lk 10:12). Nevertheless, they had been in close contact with the original Twelve. All of them related in their narratives not only what they could remember themselves, but also the accounts of those who lived near to the time of Jesus. So, the Gospel narratives are the firsthand and secondhand sources, which, by their very nature, are more accurate and have more credibility compared to any other sources of information.
In later chapter we will examine the exact information provided in the four canonical Gospels with regard to chronology.
In addition to the canonical Gospels, there is also a number of Apocryphal Gospels. They were not included in the Canon either because they contain a pious forgery or because of some heretical content. That is why it would be highly inadvisable to use them for the purposes of recreating biblical chronology.
Non-Christian sources on the life of Jesus Christ
Among the whole corpus of early non-Christian writings which shed light on the life of Jesus Christ, the following are particularly noteworthy.
Pliny the Younger (c. 61 c. 113 NE), a Roman politician and writer, a lawyer. In a letter to the Emperor Trajan (reigned in 98 117 NE) he says:
I consider it my sacred duty to seek your advice, sire, to find an answer to those questions that arouse my bewilderment. Ive never witnessed trials against Christians. Therefore, I do not know what they are usually interrogated on and for what and to what extent they are punished. For I was in a great difficulty as to whether I should recognize the differences in their ages, or not at all distinguish minors from mature adults, whether I should grant pardon for repentance (or maybe renunciation of Christianity would not do any good to someone who was once a Christian), whether to execute them for the very name they bear [nomen ipsum] in the absence of any other crimes, or for the crimes [flagitia] having some connection with the name. Meanwhile, I acted in the following manner with those who, as I was informed, were Christians. I interrogated them on whether they were Christians and, when they confessed, I pressed my question the second and third time while threatening them with execution. Those who persisted I ordered to be executed [ducijussi]. I didnt doubt that, regardless of the nature of wrongs they confessed, their stubbornness and impenitence alone deserved punishment. However, apart from those executed, there were others who were out of their minds as well. But because they were Roman citizens, I ordered that they be set apart to be sent to the capital. However, we had more and more complications as we proceeded. I received an anonymous report containing a list of Christians, but among them there were quite a few of those who denied that they were Christians and claimed they had never belonged to that group. When they, together with me, called upon the gods and worshiped your image which I had ordered to bring along with the statues of the gods, and when they cursed the name of Christ (they say, true Christians cannot be forced to do any of these three acts), I deemed it possible to release them. Others, whose names were on the list, confessed that they had been Christians at one time but left that fellowship, some three year ago, some earlier, and some even twenty years ago. All of them worshiped your image and the statues of the gods, having cursed the name of Christ. According to their own words, their whole crime consisted in that they gathered together early in the morning on certain days and sang hymns to Christ as God, and that in the name of religion [sacramento] they had bound themselves not to do any crimes, but to refrain from stealing, robbery, adultery, to keep promises and pay off debts, and that after their gatherings they got together again to take food, which was, incidentally, regular and innocent. And even this they stopped doing after I banned the hetaeria on your authority. Nevertheless, I judged it necessary to subject to torture the two slaves, who were called deaconesses [ministrae], in order to find out what is right and just there. But I found nothing except utter superstition of a gross kind. Therefore, postponing further proceedings, I appeal to you for advice (Letter 10,96).
In terms of chronology, the above letter, testifies only to the relatively wide spread of Christianity by the beginning of the second century.
Gaius Suetonius Tranquill (c. 70 c. 126 NE), Roman writer, historian, encyclopedist, and personal secretary of Emperor Hadrian. In his work The Lives of the Twelve Caesars [De vita Caesarum], he records the deeds of the Emperor Claudius (reigned in 41 54 NE):
He [Claudius] expelled from Rome the Jews who were constantly stirred by Chresto (Ibid., 5,25,4).
Some skeptical scholars, who see here the name of Chrest, are not inclined to associate it with Jesus. On the other hand, theres nothing here that prevents us from assuming that this is a distorted name of Christus or Χριστός. Moreover, this is exactly what Tertullian points out: The designation Christian, as follows from the etymology of the word, derives from the word anointment. And the name Chrestian, incorrectly pronounced by you [Romans] (because you do not even know exactly what we are called), means pleasantness or goodness (Apologeticum, 3,5). Lactantius makes a similar remark: However, it is necessary to explain the meaning of this name [Christ] because some ignorant people, who would call him Chrest, make a mistake by mixing up the two sounds (Divine Institutes, 4,7,5). Also, the Book of Acts says that when Paul came to Corinth, he found there the exiled Jews, because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome (Act 18:2). But what else, other than the spreading of the teaching of Jesus Christ, could cause the Roman Jews to be constantly stirred?