A part of the graph, the link below has the whole thing.
Of the big AI players, Anthropic’s Claude is quite good at making diagrams, so I used it to generate an infographic I’ve always wanted to see, something that conveys in one visual how far away from Christ a book in the NT was written, the size of the work, and whether it’s considered “authentic” by scholars, either in the sense that it was written by whoever it claims to be written by (the undisputed Pauline epistles), or whether it has authentic first-hand reports from the time of Christ not found elsewhere (The Synoptic Gospels and Acts). In other words, I want to see which sources are closest to the “historical Jesus.” On one hand I think most historical Jesus research and thought processes get a little carried away about their narrow false negative confidence intervals, but at the same time the premise that the manuscripts closer to Christ could tell us more about Him is valid for most purposes.
In order to show the data in year-by-year and to scale the size of the block proportional to the size of the book I created a graph that could not fit onto one page (and I don’t know how to embed it into WordPress), but you can see the a version that you can scroll through here. (Claude now has an “artifacts” feature where you can share the results of your code with others through a simple link).
A few notes.
After seeing it laid out like this, the particular importance of Galatians and Thessalonians (and the unimportance of Revelations) for understanding early Christianity sticks out, since those are the earliest extant Christian documents. However, as I recognize the superiority of modern revelation in determining theology, I don’t see an emphasis on these early works as some insight into a more authentic Christianity than that which we get on Sunday, so there is a limit to which this kind of critical approach has any real-life bearing on my personal faith or religious behavior.
Obviously when something like this comes up there is the question of whether the “inauthentic” canonized NT books are not “legitimate.” With this I take my cue from Joseph Smith, who on one hand explicitly stated that the Song of Solomon was not inspired, but then quoted from it at the Kirtland Temple dedication. I am fine with a kind of “death of the author” attitude towards things in the Bible that might not have been written by who they claim to have been, and I think you can have that while not slipping all the way down the slope of it’s-all-allegory. Also, I’m open to the idea that copies-of-copies-of-copies could have started with authentic documents, and then morphed through time into what we have now. Similarly, I think what God said in D&C 91 regards to the apocrypha is basically relevant to all of scripture. If you are in the right mindset it is helpful regardless of its provenance, if you’re not it’s not (I’ve known too many scriptural know-it-alls that really don’t get the point to see it otherwise).
Finally, I realize that I am oversimplifying things and undoubtedly glossing over wide confidence intervals and intense academic debates for some of these (I took the earliest date in Wikipedia as the baseline). If somebody wants to figure out how to take this and get a way to visualize the confidence intervals without cluttering up the image, then by all means (Claude makes it easy to make derivatives off of somebody else’s work).
Below is the code for record keeping purposes. It uses React, which I don’t know, it’s all Greek to me, but this is what Claude generated for the image. And yes, I know that the number of words varies depending on translation, but for our comparative purpose the chart put together by this guy is probably close enough. The dates and judgement calls for authenticity are based on the Wikipedia article. And yes, I know it’s Wikipedia, but with this kind of stuff Wikipedia is actually much more accurate than people give it credit for.
***************************************
import React from ‘react’;
const books = [
{ name: “Death of Christ”, year: 33, type: “event”, words: 5000 },
{ name: “Galatians”, year: 48, authentic: 2, words: 2230, type: “book” },
{ name: “2 Thessalonians”, year: 51, authentic: 1, words: 823, type: “book” },
{ name: “1 Thessalonians”, year: 51, authentic: 2, words: 1481, type: “book” },
{ name: “1 Corinthians”, year: 53, authentic: 2, words: 6830, type: “book” },
{ name: “Philemon”, year: 54, authentic: 2, words: 335, type: “book” },
{ name: “Philippians”, year: 54, authentic: 2, words: 1629, type: “book” },
{ name: “2 Corinthians”, year: 55, authentic: 2, words: 4477, type: “book” },
{ name: “Romans”, year: 57, authentic: 2, words: 7111, type: “book” },
{ name: “Colossians”, year: 62, authentic: 1, words: 1582, type: “book” },
{ name: “Gospel of Mark”, year: 65, authentic: 2, words: 11304, type: “book” },
{ name: “James”, year: 65, authentic: 0, words: 1742, type: “book” },
{ name: “First Peter”, year: 75, authentic: 0, words: 1684, type: “book” },
{ name: “Acts”, year: 80, authentic: 2, words: 18450, type: “book” },
{ name: “Gospel of Luke”, year: 80, authentic: 2, words: 19482, type: “book” },
{ name: “Hebrews”, year: 80, authentic: 0, words: 4953, type: “book” },
{ name: “Ephesians”, year: 80, authentic: 0, words: 2422, type: “book” },
{ name: “Gospel of Matthew”, year: 80, authentic: 2, words: 18346, type: “book” },
{ name: “Gospel of John”, year: 90, authentic: 0, words: 15635, type: “book” },
{ name: “1 John”, year: 90, authentic: 0, words: 2141, type: “book” },
{ name: “2 John”, year: 90, authentic: 0, words: 245, type: “book” },
{ name: “3 John”, year: 90, authentic: 0, words: 219, type: “book” },
{ name: “Revelation”, year: 95, authentic: 0, words: 9851, type: “book” },
{ name: “1 Timothy”, year: 100, authentic: 0, words: 1591, type: “book” },
{ name: “2 Timothy”, year: 100, authentic: 0, words: 1238, type: “book” },
{ name: “Titus”, year: 100, authentic: 0, words: 659, type: “book” },
{ name: “Second Peter”, year: 110, authentic: 0, words: 1099, type: “book” }
];
const getColor = (item) => {
if (item.type === “event”) return ‘bg-blue-500’;
switch(item.authentic) {
case 2: return ‘bg-green-500’;
case 1: return ‘bg-yellow-500’;
case 0: return ‘bg-red-500’;
default: return ‘bg-gray-500’;
}
};
const Timeline = () => {
const minYear = Math.min(…books.map(book => book.year));
const maxYear = Math.max(…books.map(book => book.year));
const years = Array.from({length: maxYear – minYear + 1}, (_, i) => minYear + i);
const maxWords = Math.max(…books.map(book => book.words));
const itemsByYear = books.reduce((acc, item) => {
if (!acc[item.year]) acc[item.year] = [];
acc[item.year].push(item);
return acc;
}, {});
return (
<div className=”p-4″>
<h1 className=”text-2xl font-bold mb-4″>New Testament Timeline</h1>
{/* Legend moved to the top */}
<div className=”mb-4 p-2 border rounded bg-gray-100″>
<div className=”font-bold mb-2″>Color Legend:</div>
<div className=”flex flex-wrap”>
<div className=”flex items-center mr-4 mb-2″>
<div className=”w-4 h-4 bg-blue-500 mr-2″></div>
<span>Historical Event</span>
</div>
<div className=”flex items-center mr-4 mb-2″>
<div className=”w-4 h-4 bg-green-500 mr-2″></div>
<span>Authentic (2)</span>
</div>
<div className=”flex items-center mr-4 mb-2″>
<div className=”w-4 h-4 bg-yellow-500 mr-2″></div>
<span>Potentially Authentic (1)</span>
</div>
<div className=”flex items-center mr-4 mb-2″>
<div className=”w-4 h-4 bg-red-500 mr-2″></div>
<span>Not Authentic (0)</span>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div className=”flex”>
<div className=”w-16 mr-4″>
{years.map(year => (
<div key={year} className=”h-32 flex items-start justify-end pr-2 border-r-2 border-gray-300 pt-2″>
{year}
</div>
))}
</div>
<div className=”flex-1 relative”>
{years.map(year => {
const yearItems = itemsByYear[year] || [];
return (
<div
key={year}
className=”absolute left-0 right-0 flex flex-col items-start”
style={{ top: `${(year – minYear) * 128}px`, minHeight: ‘128px’ }}
>
{yearItems.map((item, index) => {
const width = Math.max((item.words / maxWords) * 100, 5);
return (
<div key={item.name} className=”flex items-center mb-2 w-full”>
<div
className={`p-1 border rounded ${getColor(item)} flex items-center justify-center overflow-hidden mr-2`}
style={{ width: `${width}%`, height: ’24px’ }}
>
{item.type === “event” && item.name}
</div>
{item.type === “book” && <div className=”text-xs whitespace-nowrap”>{item.name}
</div>
);
})}
</div>
);
})}
</div>
</div>
</div>
);
};
export default Timeline;
I enjoyed what you have put together. The dating of the books is pretty close to other lists I have read, even though it is mostly guesswork. Exceptions to this include the Gospel of John, where I’ve read a date of 115 a.d., while some LDS scholars put it as the first gospel written (See the Life and Teachings of Jesus Christ).
Now, the authenticity question is a sticky wicket. For example, many Southern Baptists believe that every word in the bible is 100% authentic, while those in the Jesus Seminar would have you believe that Jesus only spoke about 18% of the words attributed to him. It seems to me that considering something “authentic” would depend on where you are on a descending scale which is personally comfortable, sort of like this:
1) the books were written by the hand of a prophet whose name is ascribed to them on the title page and have come down to us in pristine condition, each word coming from God’s mouth to the prophet’s pen.
2) the books were written by the hand of the prophet whose name is ascribed to them and have come down to us in pristine condition, each word coming from God’s mouth to the prophet’s pen but contains innocent translation errors.
3) the books were written by the hand of the prophet whose name is ascribed to them and have come down to us in good condition, each word inspired by God’s will to the prophet’s ear and written by the prophet the way he understood it.
4) the books were written by the hand of an inspired person whose name is different than the one ascribed to them, such as a scribe of Paul, each word coming through inspiration.
5) the books were written by the hand of a person whose name is different than the one ascribed to them, such as a follower of Paul’s community, seeking to write in Paul’s style the things he thinks Paul would have said or heard Paul say even after Paul is dead.
6) Some books may be accepted “as far as they are translated correctly”, i.e. they are used for worshipping purposes even though the congregation knows that there are errors in the translation being used.
7) the book is written by an unknown person or persons who possibly uses a “established” prophet or apostle in the title in an attempt to deceive and to puff up its status for unknown reasons (pseudepigrapha). Some may contain actual sayings of Jesus (the Book of Thomas).
8) The bible is not necessarily inspired, but I find inspiring messages in it.
9) the bible was translated by wicked men who intentionally left out plain and precious truths.
I know there are more categories, like I, “I know it’s true ‘cuz my mama said it is” or “it makes me feel good to read it”. I, personally, vacillate somewhere in the middle.
I like your list, it shows how large the possibility space is for the different NT works when we try to nail it down as “authentic” or “pseudographic” (and yes, I realize the OP doesn’t help with that). For example, maybe Revelations started out as authentic, then when after playing telephone with the original Revelations for decades it ended up with all the things that date it to later. Maybe, but it is ultimately one of a bunch of options, so some epistemological humility is in order.
It would be interesting to see how apocryphal New Testament books fit in this chart (these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Testament_apocrypha). Some may score “higher” than some of the books in our canon and be closer to the “historical Jesus” than many of the books we know and love.