Now that we've finished up the book of Acts, the next question is what should we read next?
Since we've just been reading so much about Paul's adventures on his trips visiting various cities, preaching about Jesus and then having churches (believers in Jesus Christ, not buildings :) ) started in these cities, I thought it would be good to now read some of the letters that Paul writes to these churches and perhaps go in chronological order.
On www.biblestudytools.com I found the following list of order of when the New Testament books were written. We don't know absolutely for sure but following evidence in the letters and books themselves (comments about things in the world around) and evidence from external references to the books, we can get a pretty good idea of when they were written. Though there are variations in different estimates, this one is good enough for our purposes. Here's the list:
James - 50 A.D. First Thessalonians - 52-53. Second Thessalonians - 52-53. Galatians - 55. First Corinthians - 57. Second Corinthians - 57. Romans - 57-58. Philippians - 62-63. Colossians - 62-63. Philemon - 62-63. Ephesians - 62-63. Luke - 63. Acts - 64. First Timothy - 65. Titus - 65. Second Timothy - 66. Mark - 66. Matthew - 67. Hebrews - 67. First Peter - 67-68. Second Peter - 68. Jude - 68. Apocalypse - 68. John - c. 85. Epistles of John - 90-95. (http://www.biblestudytools.com/resources/guide-to-bible-study/order-books-new-testament.html)
So with that in mind, I propose we go next to First Thessalonians and see what is happening in that city.
Just for reference, Paul's first missionary journey is thought to have started sometime around AD 47 and his second journey around AD 49-51 and his third journey around AD 53-54. So First Thessalonians was probably written on his second journey.
Since we've just been reading so much about Paul's adventures on his trips visiting various cities, preaching about Jesus and then having churches (believers in Jesus Christ, not buildings :) ) started in these cities, I thought it would be good to now read some of the letters that Paul writes to these churches and perhaps go in chronological order.
On www.biblestudytools.com I found the following list of order of when the New Testament books were written. We don't know absolutely for sure but following evidence in the letters and books themselves (comments about things in the world around) and evidence from external references to the books, we can get a pretty good idea of when they were written. Though there are variations in different estimates, this one is good enough for our purposes. Here's the list:
The four gospels were written almost more than 30 years after Jesus was taken up to heaven. Probably some people are wondering how the authors clearly remembered or knew what the Lord Jesus said and did. As I know, at that time paper was not commonly used as today, and people recorded information mainly via oral tradition and they were good at memory. If some words in the gospels about Jesus were wrong or inaccurate, people who were living at the same time as the authors would point out the mistakes.
ReplyDeleteI had thought that Galatians was written earlier than 1 Thessalonians, perhaps the earliest New Testament book written except for James. That is what I recall from seminary (NT lectures and the book 'The Cradle, The Cross, and the Crown') as well as the ESV Study Bible - "Reading the Epistles" study resource.
ReplyDeleteAs I said, the dates are not certain and the outline of dates I provided are just one estimate that I found online. Clearly 1 Thessalonians had to be written after Paul's second journey since he didn't visit Thessalonica until his second journey. He visited the Galatians (Iconium, Lystra, Derbe) on the first trip (and the others as well) and based on the content of the book with much to say about not needing to be circumcised, it is likely that Paul wrote it before the Jerusalem council in Acts 15 which debated that topic. Acts 15 was between his first and second journey, so yes, it is likely that Galatians was written before 1 Thessalonians. I was planning to read it next after 2 Thessalonians :).
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